Strong Year News

Norwegian davit supplier Vestdavit has notched up a new annual sales record for another consecutive year after seeing its order intake surge by 76% in 2023 on high demand from the offshore wind and oil and gas sectors, as well as increased sales in its core naval market.Vestdavit has expanded its market position in offshore wind after both gaining new customers and winning repeat orders with existing clients, including Esvagt and Rem Offshore, with orders in this sector accounting for more than $9.4 million (NOK 100 million)…

The BIMCO Tanker Shipping Market Overview & Outlook February 2024 by Niels Rasmussen, BIMCO’s Chief Shipping Analyst, forecasts that the supply/demand balance will tighten further during both 2024 and 2025.Low fleet growth, along with increasing sailing distances, create the foundation for the improvement despite a slowing of growth in oil demand. The product tanker supply/demand balance is also expected to tighten in 2024 but weaken in 2025. Like the crude tanker market, longer sailing distances support demand growth despite slowing oil demand.

Shipping across the Great Lakes – St. Lawrence Seaway system topped 4.2 million tons in October, led by strong gains in grain as well as potash, salt and other dry bulk cargos. Overall grain shipments reached 1.5 million tons, a reflection of the strong late harvest in various regions of the Great Lakes.“It’s great to see these positive numbers for the late harvesting of grain in the U.S. and Canada,” said Bruce Burrows, President & CEO of the Chamber of Marine Commerce. “The…

Dubai-owned ports giant DP World reported on Thursday a record $721 million first-half profit boosted by elevated shipping rates but said it expected its profit, revenue, and container growth rates to moderate in the rest of the year.The company, one of the world's biggest port operators, said profit climbed 51.8%, up from $475 million in the same period a year ago.The shipping industry has seen record profits recently due to tight shipping supply caused by a surge in consumer demand and pandemic-linked supply chain disruptions.

The St. Lawrence Seaway kicked off its 2022 navigation season on Tuesday, with international freighters able to arrive at the Montreal – Lake Ontario section of the binational St. Lawrence Seaway.“We’re thrilled to start the 2022 navigation season,” said Craig Middlebrook, Deputy Administrator of the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation. “This year we’re confident that the St. Lawrence Seaway will continue to be a major driver of economic development while offering…

ABB expects supply chain bottlenecks to ease during 2022, the Swiss engineering group said on Thursday, after shortages of semiconductors hurt its ability to deliver increasing orders during the fourth quarter.The maker of fast chargers for electric vehicles and industrial drives for factories reported a 21% jump in orders as demand surged from machine builders, food manufacturers and general industry.But revenues grew by only 8% as ABB battled shortages of key components such as semiconductor chips that have hit the rest of industry.

Cox Powertrain, a British manufacturer of high-power diesel outboard engines, announced it has raised £9 million from existing shareholders and a further £3 million loan from HSBC UK Equipment Finance to allow the company to expand and ramp up production of the CXO300 outboard engine.Since 2007, Cox Powertrain has been continuously backed by private investors. Production of the CXO300 began in May 2020 and since then, the CXO300 has been shipped to more than 16 territories across the globe.The CXO300 is built at Cox Powertrain’s HQ in Shoreham…

German shipbuilding company Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesellschaft (FSG) announced the christening and launch of a new 4,076 lane meter roll-on, roll-off (RoRo) freight ferry in Flensburg yard.The ship was named “LIEKUT”, which means “straight ahead” in the local dialect of Lower German, reflecting the continued focus and endeavour of SIEM Europe and FSG.The new vessel is the eighth Ro-Ro vessel ordered from FSG by Norwegian shipping company SIEM Europe.The ship was launched after being officially named, building on a strong year for FSG that has seen the shipyard win awards for its work and continue to deliver world-leading RoRo and RoPax ships at the cutting edge of the market.The godmother is Mrs. Jana Schüler, the wife of Mr.

Florida’s largest container port achieved record volumes in containers, vehicles and overall tonnage during the fiscal year ending September 30, 2019.The Jacksonville Port Authority (JAXPORT) moved more than 1.338 million twenty-foot equivalent units (or TEUs, the industry standard for measuring containers), a 5 percent increase over 2018, which was also a record year in container volumes for the port. JAXPORT has set container volume records for four consecutive years.The port also moved the most vehicles in its history…

The commercial shipping port in New Zealand, Eastland Port achieved an annual tonnage throughput of just under 2.9 million tonnes of cargo in the year to March 2019, slightly down on last year’s record-breaking result.“The 12-month period was another very strong year for throughput at Eastland Port with vessels taking this district’s export product to South Korea, Japan, China, and Singapore,” says general manager Andrew Gaddum.In the year to 31 March 2019, 140 ships handled 2,956,071 tonnes of cargo at Eastland Port. Of that, 126 ships took away 2,941,324 tonnes of logs.The other 14,747 tonnes of cargo was made up of fertiliser (1,600 tonnes on 2 ships)…

Any analysis of markets for offshore service vessels (OSV) usually begins with analogies to rough weather, best of times/worst of times or similar. OSV expert Seabrokers, with a home base in Stavanger, Norway, in the February edition of its Seabreeze market report follows this convention with a description of the “feast or famine” conditions in the North Sea. Recent day rate action highlights the localized nature of markets for anchor handlers (AHT), platform supply vessels (PSVs) and similar equipment…

The major maritime hub in Northern Ireland Belfast Harbour handled a record 24.6 million tonnes of cargo in 2018, up 3.8% on the previous year thanks to a major increase in the number of freight vehicles passing through the port, which rose to a high of 532,000, latest figures show."Growth was led by a strong increase in freight vehicle carryings on Stena Line’s services to Great Britain, rising by 3% to a record 532,000 freight vehicles and for the second consecutive year more than 1.5m passengers passed through the Port," said a statement.Stena Line’s trading performance in 2018 was enhanced as a consequence of its introduction of…

Container imports on both the US East Coast (USEC) and West Coast (USWC) had a strong year in 2018, growing 3.7% and 8% respectively in the first 11 months of the year compared to the same period in 2017.Record high levels of inbound laden containers were experienced on both coasts in October with the USWC at 1.09 million TEU and the USEC at 0.91 million TEU according to BIMCO’s own data.The first two months of 2018 saw the USWC coast’s laden imports increase 11.7% from the start of 2017, with the accumulated growth rate then stabilising to around 4% for the rest of the year.

Dubai state-owned port operator DP World Limited said it handled 17.6 million TEU (twenty-foot equivalent units) across its global portfolio of container terminals in the first quarter of 2018, with gross container volumes growing by 7.3 percent year-on-year on a reported basis, and 8.4 percent on a like-for-like basis."Following a strong year for the global container market in 2017 with peak levels since 2011, our portfolio has had an encouraging start to 2018 delivering ahead-of-market growth. The robust performance was delivered across all three regions, which once again demonstrates that we have the relevant capacity in the right markets…

India's  Apeejay Shipping said it has acquired a new Japanese 76,602 MT DWT Gearless Panamax vessel to take its fleet size to nine. The ship has been renamed APJ Kabir Anand. The expansion schedule of Apeejay Shipping has seen the company acquire 3 Gearless Panamax vessels since September of last year and increase its fleet capacity by 2,27,311 MT DWT. This takes the fleet size to 9 with a DWT of 5, 94, 558. “This is a good time to own quality assets. A positive movement in the freight market due to general increase in demand as a result of growth in world economy and a drop in the supply, freight market is expected to be favourable for the industry in the coming years.

The Port of Indiana-Burns Harbor completed a landmark year in 2017 and is poised for significant future growth as a result of several historic developments. In addition to handling an 8 percent increase in cargo shipments in 2017, the port doubled the size of its bulk terminal, attracted a nationally-renowned stevedore in Metro Ports, handled its most valuable cargo ever, and announced a $20 million expansion made possible by earning one of only 10 "FASTLANE" small project grants awarded in the U.S. last year.

For 2018, the world containership fleet is expected to grow in step with global demand, according to BIMCO’s latest container shipping market outlook. Having experienced falling freight rates from August to year-end in 2017, most liner companies were successful in pushing rates higher in early January 2018. Most of them managed to hold onto most of the gains they achieved, considering October and November were challenging in terms of very low demand growth. The weak demand came from the Far East to Europe trade, and on the Intra-Asian transport.

Honolulu-based Matson Inc reported fourth-quarter net income of $166.9 million. On a per-share basis it has profit of $3.90. The ocean transportation and logistics services company posted revenue of $516.1 million in the period, beating Street forecasts. Four analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $503.2 million. The  U.S. carrier in the Pacific reported profit of $232 million, or $5.37 per share for the year. Revenue was reported as $2.05 billion. Matt Cox, Matson's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, commented, "Matson's core businesses performed well during the fourth quarter supported in particular by continued strong demand in our China service and higher lift volumes at SSAT. Overall, 2017 was a solid year for Matson.

With years of austerity in their rear-view mirrors, the world's biggest oil companies are locked in a beauty contest to lure investors with promises of growth and greater rewards. Royal Dutch Shell and Total are emerging as frontrunners after a three-year slump thanks to strong growth projections but Exxon Mobil, the biggest publicly traded oil company, has largely disappointed with a weaker outlook. Major oil companies slashed spending and cut costs after oil prices collapsed…

The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) expects 2016 sales of bunker fuel for ships to rise to a record for a second consecutive year, with early estimates showing volumes increased 7.7 percent to 48.6 million tonnes, it said on Wednesday. This compares with the 45.2 million tonnes sold in 2015. "It's really no surprise we broke the record, 2016 was a strong year for Singapore bunkers," said a Singapore-based bunker fuel trader who declined to be identified as he is not authorised to speak to the media. Volumes of marine fuels sold in Singapore averaged 4.1 million tonnes a month in 2016, compared with 3.8 million tonnes a month in the previous year.

Total barge tonnage through the Port of Little Rock in May was 66,000 net tons. Dock activities continue to compare favorably to calendar year 2015. Logistic Services, Inc. has handled 274 barges during the first half of 2016 year and 410,000 net tons of various commodities have moved across the docks at the Port of Little Rock. Bulk commodities outpaced break-bulk cargo accounting for 55% of the tonnage handled across the docks. Cargoes handled across the docks included DAP, sulfate, triple phosphate, urea, rock, wetcake, bauxite, granite fines, wire rod coils, scrap, stainless scrap, steel coils and pipe. The US Army Corps of Engineers reports that 979,684 tons of commodities moved through the McClellan-Kerr Navigation System in June 2016.

Commodities trading firm Trafigura expects tougher conditions in tanker markets next year as weaker world economy prospects and a slide in oil prices are set to take their toll on shipping. Bargain hunters picking up cheap crude after the price drop and refineries, which have been very busy meeting rising demand, have helped tanker markets experience their best earnings in years after a long period of losses. Rates for crude supertankers have soared in recent weeks to over $110,000 a day - their highest since 2008. Trafigura, one of the world's leading shipping market players, said it had enjoyed a strong year helped by low fleet growth and buoyant demand to transport both crude and oil products.

Freight rates for capesize bulk carriers could hold around current levels or nudge slightly lower next week as cargo volumes fail to match the number of ships available for charter, brokers said on Thursday. That came as the traditional fourth quarter bounce in rates from strong year-end cargo demand remained elusive, brokers added. "No one expected the fourth quarter to be so bad," said a Shanghai-based capesize broker. "Last week people were saying we were at the bottom of the market already. My feeling is we are near the line but not yet," the broker said. Market players were slowly losing hope of witnessing any big spike in rates this year, Norwegian shipbroker Fearnley said in a note on Wednesday.