Good morning. Here’s our quick view of everything you need to know today.

The Lloyd’s List Daily Briefing is brought to you by the Lloyd’s List News Desk.

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

Print this briefing

What to watch

Shipping lenders are broadly in line with globally agreed decarbonisation goals, but with significant individual variations, a landmark report has revealed. The first annual disclosure report by the Poseidon Principles initiative showed that the carbon intensity of the 2019 shipping portfolios of 15 lenders was on average only 1.2% shy of meeting the trajectory required to meet the International Maritime Organization’ mid-century decarbonisation goals.

The coronavirus pandemic is casting an ever-longer shadow on the tanker market for 2021 as two key agencies downgrade crude demand estimates for next year amid prospects that a post-Christmas third-wave of lockdowns across Europe and North America will further stall oil’s recovery

Compensation claims against classification society from families of Al Salam Boccaccio 98 victims can be litigated domestically rather than in flag state Panama, the Italian Supreme Court has decreed. The decision could have worldwide implications for litigation against class in the wake of future fatal casualties.

Analysis

Interview: Getting early vaccinations for seafarers and countering shipping’s proposed inclusion in the EU’s emissions trading system are the top items on a full agenda for the International Chamber of Shipping’s secretary-general Guy Platten, who talks to Lloyd’s List today about why he thinks shipping is more united than ever.

Interview: Global head of shipping for Anglo American Group Peter Lye estimates that LNG-fuelled ships can reduce carbon emissions by 35%. Mr Lye agrees that a significant part of the solution to meet shipping’s decarbonisation targets is to use multi-fuel capability, and he believes it would require massive investment in infrastructure and supply chain development.

Opinion

In this month’s Yard Talk column, our China Editor Cichen Shen looks at the rising popularity of LNG-fuelled orders. For those betting on LNG as a bridging fuel to green shipping, the irony is, perhaps, the longer the bridge gets, the better the returns will be, he argues.

The winners of the Inmarsat-led Innovation Challenge are newcomers to merchant shipping who saw that the unquestioned chain linking seafarer well-being, fatigue and accidents must be addressed — our chief correspondent Richard Clayton investigates.

Markets

The trade spat between Australia and China means that coal is now being sourced from alternative suppliers, affecting major Pacific coal shipping routes. Lloyd’s List Intelligence data shows at least 35 panamax or post-panamax and three capesize bulk carriers of more than 6m dwt, which loaded coal at eastern Australian ports since July, are at anchorages outside terminals at Caofeidian, Huanghua, Tangshan and Bayuquan.

The container equipment shortage is not due to a shortage of container equipment. Carriers have made much of their investment in new container fleets. But the shortage of export containers in Asia is more to do with schedule disruptions and blanked sailings than with the size of the equipment fleet.

In other news

Brazil’s mining giant Vale announces that the final cargo carried on its chartered fleet of converted very large ore carriers has been discharged in China. Converted VLOCs have been the bane of the dry bulk shipping industry following the sinking of Stellar Daisy in 2017, with the loss of 22 lives. Subsequent inspections on similar vessels found concerning defects.

The International Maritime Organization has said that a few more member states have designated seafarers as key workers, bringing the total to 45, plus one associate member.

Singapore has developed a framework for granting shore leave for crew working on board visiting vessels as the port authority further relaxes coronavirus restrictions.

Saudi Arabia said an explosives-laden boat hit a fuel transport ship anchored at Jeddah the same day Hafnia reported a blast on its product tanker BW Rhine. That followed reports on Monday of a second incident at the Red Sea port.

Five crew have been kidnapped from a locally trading general cargoship in the Gulf of Guinea, according to reports. The vessel had been underway from Douala to Lome. Several ships have been boarded or approached in recent weeks in the area.