November 2020 Review

Member states at the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) rubber stamped plans for short-term measures to cut carbon emissions across the entire merchant fleet. MARPOL legislation will see two new measures added: the technical requirement to reduce carbon intensity, based on a new Energy Efficiency Existing Ship Index (EEXI) from 2023; and operational carbon intensity reduction requirements, based on a new operational carbon intensity indicator (CII), due to launch in 2026. Beijing barred an ever longer list of Australian products and commodities from entering the People’s Republic, creating significant vessel backlogs and ships rerouting to alternate market places. Chinese ties with Australia have soured significantly all year with Canberra leading the charge to investigate the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic. Bans on Australian barley, coal, wheat, wine, lobster, copper, sugar, fruit and timber have since followed. Container surcharges piled up as global supply chains shuddered from an extraordinary shortage of available forty foot boxes in no small part down to the booming transpacific tradelane to the US. Once again liner executives were summoned by the Chinese and Korean governments and told to rein in high prices on the transpacific while the Federal Maritime Commission in the US has launched its own probe. Under pressure Pacific International Lines (PIL) defaulted on a notes payment and warned creditors of a liquidation risk. The world’s 12th largest liner company insisted its planned $600m bailout from Heliconia Capital Management, a unit of Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, was on track. Chinese private petrochemical group Zhejiang Rongsheng Holding entered into a framework agreement with China Shipbuilding Group to build a VLCC fleet. Rongsheng will set up a joint venture with CSSC Shipping and order up to 30 VLCCs. Shippers getting owners to order gas-fuelled ships are increasing in number. Miner Anglo American has tapped Taiwan’s U-Ming for four 190,000 dwt LNG-fuelled capes, which it will take on long term charter when they deliver from Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding in 2023. The past month has seen a steep increase in chemical tanker owners entering their vessels into pools with one another as owners anticipate a prolonged downturn in tanker hire rates. Stolt-Nielsen and Essberger announced a new joint venture which will operate 48 units of between 2,800 dwt to 11,300 dwt while Odfjell and Navig8 have announced the launch of a new 12-unit MR pool. Pankaj Khanna, a key lieutenant of George Economou for many years, bought out the Greek shipping magnate’s tanker pool Heidmar. No price has been revealed for the acquisition of one of the best known brands in the pools business. The pool, founded 36 years ago, manages 15 tankers today. Japan’s Sanoyas Holdings said it will withdraw from the shipbuilding business. At the end of February next year, all shares of subsidiary Sanoyas Shipbuilding will be sold to Shin Kurushima Dockyard for just ¥1m ($9,662). Two of the richest families in shipping joined forces on a newly rebranded offshore wind installation vehicle. BW Wind Services, a subsidiary of Andreas Sohmen-Pao’s BW Group, came onboard as one of the main investors in a new Swire IPO. Cadeler, formerly known as Swire Blue Ocean, listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange this month. The company owns and operates two offshore jack-up wind farm installation vessels, Pacific Orca and Pacific Osprey. ADQ, a state-run Abu Dhabi holding company, bought an indirect 45% stake in Louis Dreyfus Company (LDC), one of the world’s top agri-business firms. As part of the transaction, LDC has also signed a long-term commercial supply agreement with ADQ for the sale of agri-commodities to the United Arab Emirates. Bill Gates, one of the richest men in the world, turned his attention to getting ships powered by nuclear energy. The Microsoft co-founder is also chairman of TerraPower, a nuclear tech company that has entered a new venture with Mikal Bøe’s CORE POWER, French nuclear materials handling specialist Orano and American utilities firm Southern Company. The four companies plan to develop molten salt reactor (MSR) atomic technology in the United States.

November 2020 Review

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