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The Joe Biden administration outlined a 180-degree turn on the environment, seeking international collaboration and making ambitious national greenhouse gas cut targets. In shipping, John Kerry, Biden’s climate envoy, said the US would be pushing for the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to ensure shipping is a zero emissions industry by 2050, far exceeding current IMO targets that call for emissions to be slashed by at least 50% compared to 2008 levels. Green lights flashed across many shipping segments in April. The Baltic Dry Index hit 11-year highs with capes at their highest seasonal level since 2008, while records were repeatedly smashed in the container charter market. Shipping enjoyed its best Q1 since before the global financial crisis, with the second quarter on track to post equally high gains. The ClarkSea Index, a weighted average of tanker, bulk carrier, containership and gas carrier earnings managed by Clarkson Research Services, averaged $17,461 a day in the first quarter, the best Q1 average since 2008, prior to the collapse of Lehman Brothers. The momentum has continued, with the ClarkSea Index starting Q2 at $20,759 a day, up 36% on the start of the year. The World Bank came out with a report, urging governments to stop spending on LNG bunkering infrastructure. The bank is recommending countries avoid new public policy that supports LNG as a bunker fuel and reconsider existing policy support. In gt terms, 26.3% of the global orderbook is primed to be LNG ready. The 20,388 teu Ever Given remained anchored in Egypt’s Great Bitter Lake. Having run aground on March 23, creating international headlines for blocking the Suez Canal, the ship was eventually dislodged six days later. However, the ship’s owner and the Suez Canal Authority remain at severe odds over the latter’s $916m claims for the accident. The Egyptians officially arrested the Shoei Kisen-owned vessel on April 13. US tanker owners International Seaways and Diamond S Shipping agreed to merge in an all-share deal creating a $2bn tanker owning giant with a combined 100 ships in its fleet. Fresh from taking a 39.1% stake in Navigator Holdings in December, Andreas Sohmen-Pao, increasingly seen as shipping’s consolidator-in-chief, helped push through a merger with Chile’s Ultragas. Navigator’s merger with Ultragas will create a handysize gas fleet totalling 56 vessels. John Angelicoussis, Greece’s largest shipowner in dwt terms, died on April 10 at a hospital in Athens, 20 days after suffering a severe heart attack. The 72-year-old magnate took over the Angelicoussis Shipping Group in 1989 after the death of his father and grew it into one of the world’s largest shipping organisations. Christian Bonfils formed a green tonnage chartering platform in Copenhagen, with the backing of BW Group and Weco Shipping. Bonfils, who headed up BW Dry Cargo, is now in charge of the Copenhagen Commercial Platform (CCP), an independent commercial and operational management platform for dry bulk shipowners. Veteran financier Harris Antoniou unveiled a new leasing company based out of Jersey in the UK, with backing from the Latsis family, one of the most powerful names in Greek shipowning. Antoniou’s Neptune Maritime Leasing has the Lastis’ Latsco family office as anchor investor. Belgian tanker giant Euronav placed orders at Hyundai Samho in South Korea for two firm LNG-ready VLCCs, with an option for one more. Euronav revealed it is working with the yard and a class society to ensure the newbuilds come with an ammonia-ready notation, significantly fast forwarding the development of this new form of propulsion. Dr Arnt Vespermann has been headhunted to take over day-to-day operations at the Offen Group, with founder Claus-Peter Offen set to move upstairs to chairman. Vespermann, 53, was until recently the CEO of Hamburg Süd. The largest owner of conventional reefer ships in the world, Seatrade, and Caribbean logistics specialist Jamaica Producers Group bought out UK-headquartered Geest Line.

April 2021 Review

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