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

What to watch

The fire on X-Press Pearl has nearly been put out as salvors are trying to tow away the blackened containership. Meanwhile, the Sri Lankan Marine Environment Protection Authority says it will take legal action against the owners of X-Press Pearl, its crew and insurers in what it describes as potentially the ‘worst marine pollution’ Sri Lanka has ever suffered.

The Global Maritime Forum says 7.4% of seafarers are working past their contracts, up from 5.8% a month ago, as travel curbs imposed amid India’s coronavirus surge start to bite. 

Wan Hai Lines has signed for four additional 13,100 teu newbuildings with Samsung Heavy Industries, pushing the size of its latest round of order spree to 13 post-panamax containerships worth about $1.5bn. 

Analysis

Setting up as a shipping alt lender is easy. Round up some Cass buddies, rent desk space, raise a couple of hundred million bucks and farm it out to owners who cannot borrow elsewhere, right? Wrong. As part of a Special Report on shipping’s entrepreneurs, Lloyd’s List tracks the rise of Andreas Povlsen and Christoph Toepfer, two individuals who saw the opportunities opened up by the global financial crisis and stepped in to seize them.  

Shipping is asking basic questions of entrepreneurs, the most obvious of which is: What is the return on investment? Lloyd’s List’s chief correspondent Richard Clayton, as part of this month’s Special Report, tackles the question that every entrepreneur should know — but is afraid to ask. 

Opinion

‘How shipping pollutes the planet, avoids taxes, dodges regulations, and gets away with it’ — is the eye-catching strapline to the recent documentary Black Trail which has caused a stir in shipping circles. The film may not have taught us anything new about emissions, policy-making or the business of shipping, but seeing an outsider’s view of shipping on display offers a revealing, and worrying, insight into how the industry is being portrayed. This week’s podcast features the two lead journalists behind the film, Zeynep Sentek and Craig Shaw.

Markets

Capesize bulker earnings have fallen further over the past week as a sharp drop-off in iron ore demand translated into a lack of activity among all the major iron ore miners in Brazil.

China’s introduction of consumption taxes on imports of three blending fuels will help to boost demand for dirty tankers as state refiners raise run rates.

In other news

China’s CDB Financial Leasing has agreed to acquire a series of dry bulkers, with sellers linked to Clipper Group, a Danish shipping company owned by the Jensen family. 

US government has launched a co-ordinated campaign against the use of forced labour on Chinese ocean-going seafood vessels, banning products from Dalian Ocean Fishing Co while urging the World Trade Organisation to address this “global problem”. 

A Danish alliance backed by the container shipping giant Maersk has taken another step forward to pilot the production of green hydrogen.