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LPG Carrier Rates Could See Biggest Weekly Gain Ever

admin — Sun, 19 May 2013 13:09:24 +0000

VLGC Aintree, image (c) Petredec

(Bloomberg) — The cost of shipping liquefied petroleum gas headed for the biggest weekly gain on record as surging U.S. exports of the cooking fuel and chemicals feedstock sap vessel supply.

Rates for very large gas carriers already jumped 24 percent to $68 a metric ton since May 10, according to the Baltic Exchange, a London-based publisher of shipping prices on more than 50 maritime routes. That would mark the largest weekly rally in data going back to 2005 if costs stay the same today or rise, according to the bourse.

The U.S. is shipping more LPG than ever as a byproduct of record natural gas output, Energy Department data show. Trading is expanding because the fuel is cheaper in the U.S. than Europe, according to Diego de Potter, deputy chartering director at Exmar NV, the Antwerp, Belgium-based operator of two VLGCs. Port expansions and rising voyages to Asia adding cargoes and employing carriers for longer, said John Lording, who specializes LPG at Clarkson Plc, the worlds largest shipbroker.

The VLGC market is quite finely balanced, so you only need to have an extra handful of cargoes and the market reacts very positively, Lording said by phone today. Owners are very happy.

Enterprise Products Partners LP more than expanded monthly capacity at its Houston export facility by 3.5 million barreles to 7.5 million barrels in March. The U.S. produced a record 29.8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas last year and exported an unprecedented 71.9 million barrels of LPG, according to Energy Department data. The countrys exports rose 15 percent to 5.9 million barrels in the year to February, the most-recent data show.

Nippon Yusen

The publicly traded ship owner with the biggest fleet of the largest LPG carriers is Nippon Yusen K.K., based in Tokyo, according to data from Clarksons research unit. Shares of the company, which also operates vessels including oil tankers, coal and iron-ore transporters, and car carriers, will rise 8.3 percent to 287.08 yen ($2.81) in a year, according to the average of 12 analyst forecasts compiled by Bloomberg.

One gallon of propane costs 94.25 cents in Houston, compared with $2.07 in northwest Europe and $2.95 in Japan, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

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Maersk Line Seeks to Double Freight Rates Amid Weak Container Market

admin — Sun, 19 May 2013 07:09:28 +0000

Image: AP Moller-Maersk

By Mette Fraende

COPENHAGEN, May 17 (Reuters) – A.P. Moller-Maersk , owner of the world’s biggest container shipping company, is “100 percent certain” it can more than double freight rates in July despite market weakness that has seen prices fall by a third since March.

Shipping has taken a hammering in the past five years, hit both by the broad weakness of the global economy and a boom in orders for huge new freighters put in by major players just as the 2008 financial crisis hit.

The Danish group, whose Maersk Line vessels make up around 15 percent of world container shipping capacity, however, said its container shipping unit swung back to a $204 million profit in the quarter from a $599 million loss a year earlier, beating forecasts.

While those results benefitted from briefly improved prices, Maersk and other major players are now desperate to raise the industry’s traditionally volatile rates, after a fall in the past two months that left most trading at a loss.

Chief Executive Nils Smedegaard Andersen said he had “no doubt” Maersk Line would be successful in its plans to hike rates to $1481 per twenty foot container from July 1 from $731 currently.

Those spot rates, however, are traditionally only a basis for negotiation with clients and he also admitted that the outlook for the industry was bleak. The company cut its forecast for a rise in demand in 2013 to 2-4 percent from 4-5 percent earlier.

“To be honest, we just have to get used to the fact that these are harder times, and that there will be harder times ahead,” Andersen said at a teleconference.

Market capacity is also expected to increase significantly later this year, not least when the first of Maersk’s 20 new mega vessels is delivered by Korea’s Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering.

The slump of around 400 dollars in spot rates – a 36 percent fall – since March had fuelled speculation that Maersk, which traditionally offers a conservative financial outlook, could be cutting 2013 expectations.

“The fact that they keep their outlook unchanged at a time when Asia to Europe freight rates are at an absolute low, is an important signal (for the full year results),” said Sydbank analyst Jacob Pedersen.

WEAK OIL

The group’s first quarter net profit fell to $790 million, down about 30 percent from the same period a year earlier which included $899 million in settlement for an Algerian tax dispute.

The result was above an average forecast of $726 million in a Reuters poll of analysts.

The company reiterated its overall group outlook for the this year’s net profit to be below last year’s $4.0 billion, and the result for its container shipping unit, Maersk Line, to exceed last year’s $461 million.

The improvement at Maersk Line countered a 73 percent drop in net profit at Maersk Oil to $346 million, hit by a falling oil price and lower production but ahead of forecasts.

The group’s shares rose 0.7 percent on Friday versus a 0.4 percent fall in the Copenhagen stock exchange. (Additional reporting by Shida Chayesteh, Stine Jacobsen and Ole Mikkelsen; Editing by Patrick Graham)

(c) 2013 Thomson Reuters,Click For Restrictions

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Beloved Longshoreman Plunges to Death in Oakland

admin — Sun, 19 May 2013 01:11:27 +0000

Our condolences go out to the family, friends and colleagues of our union brother.

From NBC:

A body retrieved from a truck that went into the water off of a street in West Oakland Friday afternoon was that of a local longshoreman who had worked at the Port of Oakland for more than 50 years, a co-worker said.

The truck went into the water shortly after 1:35 p.m. near the 2800 block of Seventh Street.

“He’s a very loved man, he’s like a father to all of us,” said Frank Gaskin, a business agent with International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 10.

Read more here

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Bahamas News – Discovery Cruise Lines Changing Schedule

admin — Sun, 19 May 2013 01:10:52 +0000

Abaco: Road Less Traveled: Published On 09 Aug 2010. Writer Ruth Bashinsky set sail on a 42-foot yacht steered by Capt. Benjamin Dunable, to explore and experience the local flavor of the Abacos, the third largest island in the Bahamas. …

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Bahamas News – Discovery Cruise Lines Changing Schedule

Originally posted 2010-08-22 18:55:06. Republished by Old Post Promoter

Nigeria Declares Force Majeure on LNG Exports After Leak

admin — Sun, 19 May 2013 01:10:51 +0000

A ship berths near the Nigeria Liquified Natural Gas company (NLNG) near Finima village, during an aerial tour by the Royal Dutch Shell company, in Bonny March 22, 2013. Image (c) REUTERS/Akintunde Akinleye

ABUJA, May 17 (Reuters) – Nigeria LNG has declared force majeure on liquefied natural gas exports from its 22 million tonnes-a-year terminal after a leak at a Royal Dutch Shell facility, the Nigerian company said on Friday.

Shell declared force majeure on gas supplies to the export terminal on Wednesday, blaming a leak along the Eastern Gas Gathering System near Awoba in Rivers State. Around 1.5 billion standard cubic feet of gas per day is impacted, it said.

The move comes barely a month after force majeure on supplies to the plant was lifted on April 18, and at a time when Shell is reporting rising cases of sabotage and oil theft.

(c) 2013 Thomson Reuters,Click For Restrictions

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LOOMING FUEL SCARCITY: Transport operators plead with tanker …

admin — Sun, 19 May 2013 00:08:55 +0000

The national leadership of the Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners , NARTO, has appealed to Petrol Tankers Drivers, PTD, branch of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas, NUPENG, to shelve its …

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LOOMING FUEL SCARCITY: Transport operators plead with tanker …

APPEA: Tax Changes Will Hurt Australia's Oil & Gas Industry …

admin — Sat, 18 May 2013 23:25:45 +0000

Tax changes included in Australia's Budget for 2013 that affect exploration costs and thin capitalisation rules will hurt the oil and gas industry's international competitiveness. As such, they are … In the Budget papers, the Government has also identified the potential revenues associated with the proposed introduction of cash bidding for nominated offshore exploration acreage, which APPEA believes to be both premature and likely to be overly-optimistic. APPEA …

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APPEA: Tax Changes Will Hurt Australia's Oil & Gas Industry …

Shipbuilding Tribune – Damen Galati: Launching of Two PSVs 3300 …

admin — Sat, 18 May 2013 23:25:40 +0000

The vessels can also carry on deck conventional containers for diverse cargo. In the same time, the vessels can operate as fire extinguisher to the sea platforms being provided with oil recovery equipment. The vessels are equipped with two Schottel azimuth propellers and will operate as a dynamic positioning DP2 vessels when carrying out loading / unloading operations around offshore drilling rigs or production platforms. Main characteristics of the vessels are: …

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Shipbuilding Tribune – Damen Galati: Launching of Two PSVs 3300 …

Today in History: May 18, 2013

admin — Sat, 18 May 2013 21:12:00 +0000

In 1913: Three farms of 160 acres each near Gas Point were bonded by the Shasta Mining and Dredging Co., which operated a $150,000 gold dredger at Horsetown, 10 miles north, for the last 10 years. The company had about exhausted the ground around Horsetown and was looking for a new field.

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Today in History: May 18, 2013

Good Idea Grows and Gains Foothold

admin — Sat, 18 May 2013 19:10:30 +0000

Lloyd’s List has spoken out on the issue of seafarerabandonment and terms it the “sorry underside of shipping” – with MLC coming, some have seen that abandonments will become a thing of the past – but that is not the way the world works.

MLC isn’t some silver bullet which will stop owners going bust, but it should mean that seafarers will be better catered for when they do. However, even in the pages of the convention, there is a lack of substance on how wages will be recovered, and when seafarers are abandoned even if they do get home relatively quickly, it is the struggle to get paid which adds so much insult to injury.

Abandonments are something which shames the industry, and theInternational Labour Organisations database on seafarer abandonment shows a sorry litany of disgraceful treatment – crews are being left to fend for themselves, and all they can do is cry for help. Thankfully with the support of local charities, communities and the ITF, most eventually at least end with the crew back in the homes…but when entries blithely state, thecrew spent eight months without any payment and 30 months without social security it barely scratches the surface of the pain, torment, suffering and inhumanity of people huddling together on pariah vessels as the food, fuel and hope drain away.

Seafarers Rights International executive director Deidre Fitzpatrick said earlier this year that the Maritime Labour Convention of 2006, which comes into force in August, fails to adequately address the problem of abandoned seafarers and its not up for debate within the ILO until 2014.

What this has all meant iscurrently, short of arresting a ship, there is little recourse to recover crews unpaid wages but away from the international political talking shops progress has been made. Indeedthere has been recent and encouraging progress developing an insurance instrument that would cover seafarers in the event of abandonment and Lloyds recently amended its risk codes to include a new class of insurance that covers this.

The new classification in effect supports a new form of insurance launched last month by UK-based specialist marine intermediary Seacurus called “CrewSEACURE”which indemnifies seafarers if their employers default. The Maritime Labour Convention is very clear in the need for seafarer recruitment and manning agencies to have necessary financial protections in place if theysupply seafarers to shipowners, and so an insurance product is an ideal win-win solution.

According to Seacurus, CrewSEACURE is proving popular and the company has received many inquiries from manning and recruitment agents trying to satisfy theirMLCobligations.Seacurus managing director Thomas Brown says, A number of these agents are very concerned about supplying seafarers to vessels without this level of protection in place.

Lloyd’s List isn’t easily enthused by new products, they are very conservative by nature – so when Tom Leander says something is “a good idea”, then it really must be.

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