Daily Briefing November 27 2020
Free to read: Sanctions-busting tanker sales skew SP values and stall scrapping | Tanker owners seek Libya crude exports lift | Middle East leads fall in global crude tonne-mile demand
Good morning. Here’s our quick view of everything you need to know today.
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What to watch | Analysis | Opinion | Markets | In other news
What to watch
Record volumes of vintage tankers sold to anonymous owners to store and ship sanctioned crude have not only skewed second-hand values in 2020 but pushed tanker recycling volumes to the lowest levels in 23 years.
Libyan crude exports are offering support for suezmax tankers and may signal that oil demand is firmer than the market expects, tanker owner Frontline has told investors.
Tonne-mile demand from the Middle East Gulf is at the lowest level in a decade as a second wave of coronavirus dents demand for crude, even as oil producers reversed voluntary or agreed supply cuts from July.
Analysis
The suspected mine attack on a Greek-owned aframax tanker at a Saudi Arabian Red Sea terminal has highlighted the region’s latent security threat to shipping.
Opinion
Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos has been urged by leading shipping trade associations to use his political clout to exert pressure on governments to recognise the 400,000 seafarers stranded by the coronavirus pandemic as key workers.
The four largest shipping trade bodies have written an open letter to Jeff Bezos challenging the Amazon chief executive to recognise the crucial role seafarers play in making retail event such as Black Friday possible.
Markets
The Baltic Exchange is looking to incorporate the use of liquefied natural gas as a marine fuel into its indices for the first time, with assessments to begin for gas carriers as soon as January 1.
Indonesian coal shipments to China have been very strong, a trend that is lending support to panamax bulk carriers.
In other news
Ten seafarers have been kidnapped from a cargoship, the 1982-built, 2,530 dwt Milan, near Nigeria’s Pennington oil terminal, according to reports.
Global commodities trader Trafigura has been linked to an order for two mid-sized liquefied petroleum gas carriers to be built at the Hyundai Mipo yard in South Korea.
DFDS, the Danish ferry operator, is partnering with a group of companies to launch a electricity-powered ferry based on hydrogen fuel cells.
ExxonMobil Asia Pacific chairman and managing director Gan Seow Kee will be retiring effective January 1, 2021 and will be succeeded by current director Geraldine Chin.
Charges for detention and demurrage in the container industry are meant to induce fluidity along the supply chain, but they are now the operative words behind a US government investigation into congestion at key US ports.
Three seafarers died on UK-flagged vessels last year, according to annual statistics published by the Marine Accident Investigation Branch.
Japan’s leading city gas distribution group Tokyo Gas has picked up equity in an offshore wind joint venture bidding for a permit to operate projects off the country’s Chiba prefecture.
For the third consecutive year, Dubai ranked ahead of Rotterdam, Hamburg, New York and Tokyo — and its status is set to be further strengthened by new maritime legislation.