Daily Briefing November 21 2019
Free to read: Ports should focus on value over throughput | Competition fears delay moves to prevent cargo misdeclarations | Improved visibility a key driver for smart port development | Carriers eye strong year-end for fraught freight rate market
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What to watch | Analysis | Markets | In other news
What to watch
Port leaders have been told they should focus on how much economic value they bring to their surrounding economies and not just on throughput in terms of tonnage and teu.
Container lines suffer equally from rogue shippers misdeclaring cargoes. But efforts to share information between themselves are being stymied by the fear of breaching antitrust rules.
Analysis
The complexity of port ecosystems requires collaboration and data sharing to accelerate logistics chains.
Markets
Early Chinese New Year and scrubber retrofits ahead of IMO 2020 add optimism that spot rates can hold their own in the closing stages of 2019 following recent spikes.
Flex LNG, a Norway-based owner of liquefied natural gas carriers, said that trading patterns continued to favour Europe for incremental committed LNG volumes.
Owners of liquefied natural gas export projects in Australia’s Queensland state are diverting their supplies to the domestic market as buyers in Asia turn their gaze to lower-cost alternatives elsewhere.
In other news
Nine start-ups from Singapore, Denmark, the UK and the US have been selected to take part in Eastern Pacific Shipping’s MaritimeTech Accelerator Powered by Techstars.
All the vessels and crew seized by Houthi rebels in Yemen earlier this week have been released, South Korean news agency Yonhap has cited the foreign ministry as saying.
Malaysian floating production storage and offloading vessel specialist Yinson Holdings will boost its capital structure after sealing an $800m refinancing deal with 13 international and local banks for its FPSO John Agyekum Kufuor operating offshore Ghana.
Leading Japanese shipping group Mitsui OSK Lines is set to commission the construction of the country’s first pair of liquefied natural gas dual-fuel ferries.
Singapore-based First Ship Lease Trust has confirmed that it has sold two of its 13-year-old long range two tankers to an unaffiliated party.
American Shipping Company has said its orderbook for new vessels is “practically empty’’, with older vessels being removed from the fleet.
Market volatility and continuing uncertainty about world trade continue to characterise the boxship market, Israeli carrier Zim said.