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What to watch   |   Analysis   |   Opinion   |   Markets   |   In other news

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What to watch

While the impact of the coronavirus pandemic will be felt across the industry, some will be better able than others to ride out the storm Lloyd’s List assesses the state of play among container shipping’s chief protagonists and how the individual lines are likely to fare in the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Lloyd’s List Podcast: We look at the container market and the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Joining the conversation is Sea-Intelligence’s Lars Jensen, who offers a view of what the industry may look like this time next year and beyond.

Floating storage volumes will likely keep rising over the next few weeks as more contracts materialise and land storage pressure forces more oil to stay at sea. But with global demand sinking and supply cuts coming, daily rates for tankers are rapidly losing value.

Analysis

Shipowners who ignore an obligation to pay for the use of navigation aids in the Middle East are endangering safety in the Gulf region, says Peter Stanley, chief executive of the International Foundation for Aids to Navigation.

With unlimited financial resources, drug and most notably cocaine producers are finding novel ways to hijack legitimate supply chains, leading to a rise in drug busts at major US and European ports. Law enforcement is calling increasingly on shipping to increase security, write Jasper Helder and Lars-Erik Hjelm,  international trade partners at law firm Akin Gump.

Opinion

Shipping has been focusing on digital solutions, decarbonisation, virtual reality, and the new skills these technologies will need. There is no reason why these will all be ditched after the coronavirus, writes Richard Clayton.

Seafarers are ‘the unsung heroes of global trade’, say ICS secretary-general Guy Platten Guy Platten and Stephen Cotton.

Due to distribution challenges associated with the coronavirus outbreak, Lloyd’s List took the decision to postpone the print edition of our monthly magazine and distribute digitally. Subscribers can access a full downloadable PDF version.

Markets

Fleet update: Container shipping celebrated new records last month. The largest box ship ever built joined the fleet as more sailings than ever were blanked.

The week in charts: Container lines have been blanking large numbers of sailings to cater for reduced demand, but the worst may be over. Meanwhile, LNG cargo cancellations have hit unprecedented levels.

In other news

At least 17 seafarers a year, on average, lost their lives in bulker incidents in the past 10 years, according to new data from the International Association of Dry Cargo Shipowners.

A call has been made for a consultation on proposed guidance for green bonds aimed at shipping companies, hoping to give the industry and its investors a tool to help reduce emissions.

The International Maritime Organization has postponed its July meetings and started work on a revised meeting programme for 2020 as it grapples with coronavirus disruptions.

Two of California’s major ports — San Diego and Oakland — have appealed to the state government for financial assistance as their revenues have dropped significantly due to the impact of the coronavirus outbreak.

Anek Lines has said it is “certain” to suffer adverse effects from the coronavirus outbreak, after achieving a sharp improvement in its results for 2019.

Ships’ horns have been sounded at 1200 hrs local time in ports around the world as part of an initiative by the International Chamber of Shipping and the International Transport Workers’ Federation.

Pirates have abducted 10 crew members from a Panama-flagged bunker tanker operating off the Nigerian coast in the Gulf of Guinea.