As car carrier shipping is expected to continue its slow recovery, backed by better utilisation and minimal vessel ordering, costs are increasing while the trade outlook seems vulnerable to emerging geopolitical risk. These are the findings of the Finished Vehicle Shipping Annual Review and Forecast 2019/20 report published by Drewry.
The Shanghai Shipping Exchange reported that China’s coastal bulk freight market has seen a decrease in general demand, analysing the index of coastal bulk freight, coal sub-index, metal ore sub-index, and refined oil products index, according to Xinhua.
According to Bloomberg the costs of oil tankers are rapidly increasing, following the US’s sanctions against Chinese companies accusing them of hauling Iranian crude. The rates for vessels hauling 2 million-barrel cargoes of Middle East oil to Asia rose to 19%; Meanwhile, the cost to transmit US crude to Asia on supertankers increased by 6.3% to $8.5 million on Thursday, as Bloomberg reports.
The Department of Transport announced the sixteen ports in England that will receive a multimillion-pound funding pot to boost their preparations for Brexit. The £10 million Port Infrastructure Resilience and Connectivity (PIRC) competition offers up to £1 million to each port.
UNCTAD launched its 2019 Trade and Development report, focusing on the global financial crisis in relation with the battle against climate change, arguing that the struggle to create jobs is real, the environmental breakdown being a serious threat, adding that these challenges have resulted to new targets and goals to ensure a sustainable and safe future.
When price alone determines contract success, purchasers beware. This rarely yields economic value throughout the lifecycle and will ultimately suffocate innovation, argues Mattias Gunnarsson, Vice President, MacGregor Cargo Handling, calling for the industry to address this trend and focus on longer-term value.
US West Coast’s six largest ports sent a letter to US President Donald Trump alerting about the impacts of the trade war between the US and China, adding that the escalating tension will affect ports’ economies, workers, residents and international partnerships.
India’s export-import trade is expected to slow down in the coming months, as Maersk said in its April-June India trade report. The latter indicated that India’s containerised trade growth slowed to 1%, compared to 9% in the same period last year.
Doug Bannister, the Chief Executive Officer of the Port of Dover stated that the port, through which a sixth of the U.K.’s trade in products is being transferred, will be able to deal with any disturbance experienced by a no-deal Brexit, accounting for predictions of chaos.
The Pakistani Minister for Maritime Affairs, Syed Ali Haider Zaidi, announced that the shipping companies that will register their vessels in Pakistan by 2030, will be excluded from the taxes, as this policy aims to boost the Pakistani shipping sector.
