Daily Briefing April 12 2021
Free to read: The LL view: End the scandal of seafarer abandonment, now and forever | Plight of abandoned seafarers is ‘very critical’ | Lloyd’s List Podcast: Why decarbonisation requires more than aspirational soundbites
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
What to watch
Something is seriously wrong when crews are regularly stranded thousands of miles from home for years on end. But without rigidly enforced penalties for owners who evade best practice, those at the sharp end will continue to suffer.
The crew on board a bulker that has been abandoned since July 2019 have been on hunger strike for three months as a resolution to their plight has yet to be found.
A US-sanctioned shipowner has reflagged an elderly tanker to Nauru, a southwestern Pacific island previously identified with fraudulent and false vessel registrations.
Analysis
Liquefied natural gas shipping contracts to be awarded from Qatar’s massive tender for perhaps over 100 ships may eventually be fixed at lower rates compared with those that Nakilat’s current fleet could be attracting, according to a Drewry research note.
Small-scale ships capable of multitasking stand to benefit from better utilisation as LNG demand, which is tied to power generation, tends to be seasonal. While the commodity still needs time to gain enough clout as a marine fuel.
Global container volumes rose nearly 16% in February compared with the year-earlier period, revealing the sheer extent of the impact on box trade in early 2020 during the initial coronavirus outbreak.
Opinion
Lloyd’s List Podcast: Why decarbonisation requires more than aspirational soundbites.
The week in charts: Tanker scrapping flatters to deceive | Box data highlights pandemic pain | Suez stoppage shoots up freight rates.
Markets
The blockage of the Suez Canal may have lasted for less than a week, but the fallout on container line schedules and equipment is set to last up to two months.
Container spot freight rates have showed signs of a post-Suez increase for the first time since the reopening of the of the canal following the Ever Given grounding last month.
The values of secondhand bulk carriers are showing a clear rising trend this year compared with 2020 amid an increasingly bright outlook for this market.
In other news
The cost and frequency of ocean hull claims in the Nordic market has declined sharply in the wake of downturns in some high-value vessel shipping segments, according to new research.
Trafigura, the leading commodity trading company, has launched a carbon trading desk as part of its foray into the carbon offset market, which is expected to grow exponentially in volume and value during the next decade.
The US Supreme Court has asked the government to determine if New Jersey can legally withdraw from an agency established to combat organised crime on the docks of New York Harbour.
Florida’s largest container facility is placing itself as a viable alternative for shippers looking to avoid the vessel congestion that continues to adversely impact US ports.
Iran has released the South Korean tanker Hankuk Chemi (IMO: 9232369) and its captain, according to South Korea’s foreign ministry.
Tiger Gas, led by former Seaspan chief executive Gerry Wang, has shipped its first bulk liquefied natural gas cargo to China.