The dire states of the offshore and container markets dominated the news this week on Splash.
Today marks three weeks since Singapore-listed oilfield services provider Swiber Holdings filed to enter judicial management – the shockwaves from this seismic event continue to reverberate.
Other offshore companies listed on the Singapore Exchange (SGX) continued to distance themselves from Swiber, while a spokesperson for SGX made an almost unprecedented plea to firms to be more transparent and disclose more, in a bit of a smack down for senior management at Swiber.
Yesterday’s news that Maersk Supply Services was axing 20 ships and culling 400 staff was one of the most read of the week – the firm’s ceo telling us: “The present supply-demand gap is expected to widen in the coming year and OSV utilization is expected to decline.”
I always tell readers to dive into our Contributions section of the site – it is full with a massive range of expert opinions from across the world that you simply will not find anywhere else. The most read Contribution this week was Olaf Merk from the OECD on three reasons global trade will reach a peak – namely peak consumerism, peak trade and peak fossil fuels. An honourable mention in the Contributions section must also go to our Dalian correspondent Jason Jiang who kicked off a new series of in depth features by looking at China’s massively bloated ports scene and how Beijing can remedy the scene.
Finally, this week saw the launch of Splash Chat – our new interactive forum which has been racking up plenty of hits – do check it out right now, where I am sure debate is raging on the future of the Maersk Group, our top story today.
