Robert Porter News

As far as seasonal customs go in the shipping industry, the advent of the New Year’s Wordscale tanker flat rates, currently arriving on desks worldwide, has proven to be one of the most reliable. And again, this reliability extends to the choice of AtoBviaC as Worldscale’s partner in calculating these rates. For the ninth year in succession, new Worldscale flat rates have been calculated using round voyage distances taken from tables developed by AtoBviaC – the BP Shipping Marine Distance Tables - widely recognized as offering the gold standard for distance calculations.

Shipbroker Howard Houlder (Chartering) Ltd. has sold its shareholdings in the London Tanker Broker Panel back to the other five members of the rate-setting group, panel managing director Robert Porter said. "Howard Houlder is no longer a panel member," Porter said. Porter said he did not know why Houlder had decided to leave the panel - an independent body providing tanker rate/route assessments, for which fees are charged. Houlder had been in negotiations for some time with Capital Shipbrokers Ltd. to sell its shares for approximately $1.1 million, according to other brokers and press reports. A spokesman at Capital said the company could give no comment on the breakdown of negotiations. No one was immediately available at Houlder for comment.