BIMCO’s Chief Shipping Analyst, Peter Sand, launched the analysis ‘It’s the steel production, stupid!’, announcing the end of China iron ore cape run. The analysis focuses on the fact that Chinese imports of iron ore are continuously decreasing, whereas the nation’s crude steel production keeps growing.
BIMCO has received solid support for a submission at the 43rd session of the Facilitation Committee meeting (FAL 43) held at the IMO Headquarters on 8-12 April, that will ensure harmonisation of data exchanges and limit the administrative burden for ships. The submission proposed the introduction of additional e-business solutions that supplement communication stipulated in the FAL Convention.
BIMCO issued a report according to which only 9 out of 26 shipyards on the EU list of approved recycling facilities are realistically open for ship recycling. From the 26 shipyards, only 3 are in the position of recycling a large ship, as a Panamax-sized vessels or even larger.
Pirates off Africa’s western coast attacked a Malta-registered tanker and kidnapped three of its crew members, as reported by Romania’s Free Trade Union of Navigators and the Romanian Ministy of Foreign Affairs. The tanker ‘Histria Ivory’ run by Romanian crew members was under attack on February 3, when voyaging through the Gulf of Guinea.
The MCP is an open source, vendor-neutral digital maritime domain to bring common internet standards to maritime navigation and transportation systems. It was established on February 8, 2019. BIMCO participates in one of the projects behind the MCP; the EU funded project called EfficienSea2.
BIMCO’s analyst, Mr Peter Sand published its analysis on the tanker market, highlighting that after the downfall the market experienced in October, it made a bounce reaching a peak in late November and early December. As prices were pushed down by all-time high Saudi Arabian crude oil production that peaked at 11.1m barrels per day in November.
The main theme of 2019 for container shipping will be the sharing of the higher costs that are expected in various forms towards the end of the year, as the starting line for the IMO 2020 sulphur cap is getting near. These increased costs will come either because of purchase of fuels, or because of investments in scrubbers that will enable the carriage and consumption of HSFO after 1 March and 1 January deadlines.
BIMCO suggested that the Fourth IMO Greenhouse Gas Study should not include unrealistically high gross domestic product growth projections to predict future transport demand and the emissions of the shipping industry. The proposal has been made to the workshop preparing for the study, which is meeting in London 12-14 March.
Texas COLT, a proposed joint venture among Enbridge, Kinder Morgan, and Oiltanking, announced that it has submitted an application with the US Maritime Administration to construct and operate a deepwater crude oil export port located off the coast of Freeport, Texas. The submission with MARAD starts the application process for Texas COLT which is expected to be in-service by 2022.
A little after BIMCO published the new guidelines to improve cyber security, secureworld provides further insight on how ships can be hacked. Namely, modern ships are floating computer networks and have more and more systems that can be compromised. The most characteristic example are cruise ships. On these ships Wi-Fi works most of the time, increasing the risk of cyber attacks.
