Monthly canal transits are now much lower than they were in 2015, the year before the Neopanamax locks went into operation.
Tanker stocks rose as expected in 2023, container shipping shares surprised to the upside, and dry bulk stocks lagged the pack.
Panama’s drought initially affected transits through the smaller locks. The pain has now spread to the larger Neopanamax locks.
As the Panama Canal scales back on reservation slots, more ships without reservations wait longer to get through.
The era of rapid Chinese growth and large-scale government intervention is over, says China Beige Book CEO Leland Miller.
U.S. agribulk exports to Asia are taking the longer route via the Suez Canal due to Panama transit restrictions.
Have shipping stocks been a good bet? Here’s a look at their performance year to date and versus pre-COVID.
The global coal trade is thriving, with dry bulk ships busy carrying the loads. As the West consumes less coal, Asia buys even more.
The war has stoked fears of global shortfalls of wheat, corn and fertilizers, but the flexibility of shipping trades has limited the risk.
The Baltic Dry Index has fallen 91% since October 2021 to one of its lowest levels ever, yet shipowners remain confident.
Fallout from the Ukraine-Russia war and concerns over power supply in Europe and Asia support demand for seaborne coal.
Cargo vessels allegedly are meeting at sea to transport stolen Ukrainian grain to Turkey and Syria.
Container shipping stocks are back to pre-COVID levels whereas many tanker and bulker stocks are down by double-digits year-to-date.
Rand Logistics will purchase the American Steamship Company for $260 million.
Dry bulk ocean carrier Jinhui Shipping of Hong Kong and Oslo has drifted into the red according to its third quarter results. Its nine-month results indicate the company may generate a loss this year.
Brazil’s Vale has cut its iron-ore outlook for the first quarter, but revealed higher-than-expected projections for full-year 2020 and 2021.
Unsurprisingly, listed bulker owners insist fourth-quarter Capesize rate pressure will pass.
Fortune has taken a decidedly downward trajectory for Indonesia-focused dry bulk ocean carrier Seroja, which saw a dramatic decrease in profitability in the third quarter of 2019. But that won’t worry the company – it has just agreed to sell its entire business for $32 million.
Reduced estimate for Brazilian iron-ore exports compounds headwinds for dry bulk.
An exclusive interview with Greece’s Ioannis Martinos on what’s next for Signal Ocean.
Scorpio Bulkers plans to continue to monetize its position in related-party Scorpio Tankers.
Shipping equities have suffered through a rough couple of years, but hope persists that market capitalizations and trading volumes can be resuscitated.
Companies like Safe Bulkers are booking their ships at considerably higher rates, yet investor interest remains muted.
DryShips and Teekay Offshore are going private. With share valuations weak, others could follow suit.
Time-charter rates can offer a clearer view on future sentiment than headline-grabbing spot rates.
Eagle Bulk is finally in position to benefit from a rate recovery. It has been a long time coming for funds that invested back in 2013.
It’s hard to blame the skeptics, given what has happened in the past, but dry bulk freight rates are getting pretty impressive.
An exclusive interview with John Kartsonas, the developer of the BDRY exchange-traded fund that tracks bulker rates.
Capesize owners were afraid to ballast to Brazil when a key Vale mine was closed. Now there are too few Capesizes in the Atlantic Basin, pushing up rates.
Dry bulk transport is about to get more expensive thanks to new marine fuel regulations.
Dry bulk shipping could be a winner following the ceasefire in the trade war between the U.S. and China.
Research by Clarksons confirms acceleration of scrubber installations, reducing available ship capacity.
An independent valuation of DryShips’ fleet by VesselsValue puts the bid to take it private in context.
Rates are rising for bulkers and gas carriers, while container pricing on the trans-Pacific is showing signs of life.
Private equity-backed ship owners continue to sell fleets to already listed companies in return for shares.
As a major owner of Capesize bulkers, Golden Ocean is heavily exposed to events in Brazil.
There are some positive signs for shipping rates, but overall, disappointment prevails.
China’s new list more than doubles the tariff on LNG, but it’s the dry bulk stocks that are feeling the pain.
It’s rough out there in the dry bulk ocean shipping business. New York-headquartered Genco Shipping & Trading (NYSE: GNK) posted a net loss of $7.8 million in the first quarter […]
NASDAQ-listed Eagle Bulk believes its ‘owner-operator’ model allows it earn more than ‘pure owner’ competitors.
Public ship owners like Navios Partners saw rates fall due to cuts in Brazilian iron-ore exports.
Momentum is building to limit the speed of ocean-going vessels to curtail harmful emissions. The debate will focus on how this could impact charter rates, and whether it could have the unintended consequence of creating even more emissions-generating ship capacity.
Dry bulk shipping faced multiple headwinds in the first quarter, but NYSE-listed Scorpio Bulkers benefited from its smaller ships and its diversification into the product-tanker sector.
Nick Brown, head of marine at classification society Lloyd’s Register, is at the front lines of ocean shipping’s technological evolution. He explains how he sees this transformation playing out.
When freight rates are terrible, even a slight improvement seems like an uptick. But a terrible market is still a terrible market. Capesize rates have marginally, slightly, improved… but they’re still dreadful. And the rest of the dry bulk shipping markets are doing their best to impersonate a submarine… they’re all steadily sinking. Ship scrapping that removes some excess tonnage may help rate recovery.
Australia’s maritime officials are keeping a wary eye on the oceans around north west Australia as Cyclone Wallace menaces the Pilbara-region coastline. The harbour master for Port Walcott directed that the port be cleared. However, it was a narrow miss for iron ore export facility, Port Walcott, as the cyclone swerved away. And so the harbour master cancelled the direction to clear the port. Iron ore exports are, nonetheless, likely to disrupted. But it’s not over yet as, to the north east of Wallace, a “tropical low” is threatening to build up into a cyclone too.
Major Australian miners BHP and Rio Tinto have both revealed that they were adversely affected by the recent category four Cyclone Veronica and that they have suffered iron ore production losses.
A major iron ore export port with 185 million tons iron ore capacity on Australia’s north west coast has been absolutely clobbered by the recent category four Cyclone Veronica, FreightWaves can exclusively reveal. Port Walcott’s operational ability is down by nearly 90 percent. Rio Tinto has declared force majeure to its customers. Major miner, Rio Tinto, which operates the port, is mostly staying silent. Dry bulk freight rates are likely to be hit, dry bulk sources say.
Dry bulk shipping around the northern coasts of Australia has been suspended, ports have been cleared of ships and land side operations have stopped owing to highly unusual circumstances – two very large, very strong, cyclones, Veronica and Trevor, are about to hit Australia near-simultaneously.
Dry bulk shipping around the northern coasts of Australia has been suspended, ports have been cleared of ships and land side operations have stopped owing to highly unusual circumstances – two very large, very strong, cyclones, Veronica and Trevor, are about to hit Australia near-simultaneously.
Australian miner Rio Tinto generated over US$12 billion (all figures in U.S. dollars) from its bauxite, alumina and aluminum production in 2018. It predicts about 67 million tonnes production of bauxite, alumina and aluminum this year. These minor bulk commodities are significant seaborne cargoes.
The Grain Transport Report, a weekly publication by the Agricultural Marketing Service (a division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture) released information showing that total export inspections for grain (corn, wheat and soybeans) declined 22 percent from the previous week.
As far as investors are concerned, the trade war is effectively back on.
Dry bulk carriers outperformed the S&P 500 by a significant margin today, with Star Bulk Carriers, the largest publicly traded fleet in the segment, gaining 5.1% on the day.
UNCTAD expects volumes across all maritime segments to grow in 2018. However, it warns that trade wars can disrupt the global trading system and there is a need to assess the implications of vertical integration within the industry, addressing any potential negative effects.
Australia’s east coast grains industry suffers an ongoing drought causing severe shortfalls, and grains are being moved from West Australia to East Australia in record volumes to the point where the industry will have to consider importing grain from overseas.
A quick round-up of what you need to know about maritime today, but didn’t have time to learn about, yet.
Indonesian coal suppliers have increased their domestic coal production target by 4.5 percent from a previous 485 million tonnes to a massive 507 million tonnes in the current year. All the additional tonnage will be exported.
Stifel’s super-team of equities analysts took a hard look at trade war risk for carriers in every mode and various types of logistics service providers. Dry bulk maritime is the most exposed, while air cargo is the least. Railroads and intermodal carriers like JB Hunt and HUB Group also have significant risk.
Tesla wants to build a huge China plant to avoid tariffs; dry bulk carriers find favorable rate environment as countries re-source commodities; Honeywell adds an executive to reconfigure its supply chains; container rates from China to the North America spike as maritime lines take advantage of trade war fears.
For the first half of the year thus far, coal exports are up nearly 24% over the same period last year.
The Baltic Exchange is changing one of their signature indices, the Baltic Dry Index, which averages shipping rates for raw materials like coal, ores, and grains. Baltic is hoping to make the BDI a more attractive benchmark for futures investors.
