Bulkers News

The Baltic Exchange's main sea freight index fell on Monday, pressured by a dip in the Capesize and Panamax vessel segments. The overall index, which factors in rates for Capesize, Panamax, and supramax shipping vessels, was down 17 points, or 0.9%, at 1,944.The capesize index lost 55 points, or 2.3%, at 2,341.Average daily earnings for capesizes, which typically transport 150,000-tonne cargoes such as coal and steel-making ingredient iron ore used in construction, was down $456 at $19,418.

The Baltic Exchange's main sea freight index jumped to a more than two-month high on Tuesday, propelled by gains across vessel segments, particularly the larger capesizes.The overall index, which factors in rates for capesize, panamax and supramax shipping vessels ferrying dry bulk commodities, rose 77 points or 4.3% to 1,865 points, its highest since Aug. 1.The capesize index gained 203 points, or about 10%, to also hit an over two-month high of 2,244 points.

The Baltic Exchange's main sea freight index rose on Monday, hitting its highest in more than five months on gains in the capesize segment.The overall index, which factors in rates for capesize, panamax, supramax and handysize shipping vessels, gained 25 points, or 0.8%, to 3,369 points, its highest since Dec.

The Baltic Exchange's main sea freight index rose to a seven-week high on Friday to notch up its fourth straight weekly gain, on higher rates for the bigger capesize and panamax segments.The overall index, which factors in rates for capesize, panamax and supramax shipping vessels, rose 74 points, or 2.8%, to 2,718 points. Up 13.1%, the main index gained for the fourth consecutive week.The capesize index rose 173 points, or 6.4%, to 2,894 points. The index hit a more than four-month peak and added 35.5% this week.Average daily earnings for capesizes…

China has switched from driving global demand for major commodities to being a drag on growth, with July's customs data confirming the weakening trend for imports of crude oil, iron ore and copper.The exception to the trend was coal, but the sharp gain in July's imports of the polluting fuel are more a result of China having to go the seaborne market because of domestic policies that curbed local output.China, the world's biggest importer of crude oil, brought in 41.24 million tonnes in July, equivalent to 9.71 million barrels per day (bpd), according to official customs data released on Aug.

VesselsValue, a company providing valuations and data on a variety of vessels globally, has launched Small Dry as part of Trade offering plus updated Small Dry Values."VesselsValue is pleased to announce [it is] now covering Small Dry Trade as well as having undergone a thorough review and update of their daily automated values," the company said.Commenting on the launch, Christian Faber, Small Dry Commercial Analyst – VesselsValue Ltd said: "The Small Dry segment has always been a major part of the shipping industry, despite not necessarily being in the spotlight. "More than 10,000 vessels are currently sailing on global waters, delivering a range of commodities from grain, gypsum, clay to timber, construction materials, and wind turbine equipment.

About one third of the roughly 150 ships owned by companies controlled by Singapore tycoon Lim Oon Kuin and his family have been sold as part of efforts to repay billions of dollars of debt owed to creditors, two sources told Reuters.Accounting firm Grant Thornton, court-appointed supervisor of Xihe Holdings, put up several vessels for sale through shipbrokers in September last year. Xihe Holdings is owned by the Lim family and held the bulk of their fleet.The rest of the ships are majority-owned by Xihe Capital - currently under liquidation according to Singapore business registry records - and 10 single purpose companies.The ships…

The Baltic Exchange's main sea freight index scaled a near four-week high on Thursday as a jump in supramax rates offset weakness in the larger vessel segments.The Baltic dry index, which tracks rates for capesize, panamax and supramax vessels ferrying dry bulk commodities, rose 14 points, or 0.8%, to 1,770, hitting its highest since Jan. 22 and recording a sixth straight session of gains.The capesize index retreated from a three-week high touched on Wednesday to fall 20 points…

Mackay Marine announced the opening of its newest marine electronics service center, in Fujairah, U.A.E., located on the east coast of the Gulf of Oman.Mackay Marine–UAE provides Comm & Nav electronics sales and service to vessels in ports throughout the U.A.E., including Fujairah, Jebel Ali, Dubai, Sharjah, Port Saeed, Khorkakkan, etc., as well as service ships in Dry Dock in Oman and Dubai.Mackay Marine’s Capabilities Include:Complete Comm & Nav services provided by a single cross-trained marine technician…

Simeon Palios, chairman and CEO of Greek shipowner Diana Shipping, has tested postitive for COVID-19, and the company's board has appointed his daughter, deputy CEO Semiramis Paliou, as acting CEO on a temporary basis.As of March 24, Diana's fleet consists of 41 dry bulk vessels (four Newcastlemax, 13 Capesize, five Post-Panamax, five Kamsarmax and 14 Panamax), with a combined carrying capacity of 5.1 million dwt with a weighted average age of 9.52 years.

Monaco-based international owner and operator of dry bulk vessels GoodBulk has announced that Andrew Garcia has resigned from his position of president and director.The provider of marine transportation services said in a press release that its board has approved Brentwood Shipping and Trading’s appointment of Carlos Pena, Chief Commercial Officer of C Transport Maritime S.A.M. (CTM), as incoming Director.Pena has over 16 years’ experience in shipping across various areas and within CTM, GoodBulk’s commercial, operational and technical manager, he is responsible for overseeing all commercial activities.The company said that it is confident Pena will bring a wealth of knowledge and insight helping to further GoodBulk’s goals.

The provider of marine transportation of dry bulk commodities Scorpio Bulkers has entered into agreements with unaffiliated third parties to sell two ultramaxes and one kamsarmax for about $53.5 million in aggregate.The vessels are the SBI Jaguar and SBI Taurus, 2014 and 2015 built Ultramax vessels, respectively, and the SBI Bolero, a 2015 built Kamsarmax vessel.None of the three vessels have been fitted with scrubbers, said a press release from the Monaco-headquartered firms said.Delivery of the vessels is expected to take place between March and May of 2020.It is estimated that Scorpio Bulkers' liquidity will increase by approximately $18.3 million after the repayment of outstanding debt.Upon the completion of the sale of the three vessels, Scorpio Bulkers Inc.

Last year Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, Ltd. (“K” Line) – one of the world’s largest and most influential ship owners with 478 ships comprising 40.5 million DWT and more than 6,000 employees – celebrated its 100th anniversary. Toyohisa Nakano, Executive Officer, in charge of Ship Technical and Environmental Affairs for “K” Line, is a 30+ year veteran of the company. He discusses with Maritime Reporter & Engineering News the ship owner’s strategy to meet ever-tightening ship emission regulations.Please provide an overview of the ships you have on order today.We placed an order for 210…

International provider of marine drybulk transportation  Safe Bulkers said that two of its vessels - MV Kypros Sky and MV Kypros Spirit - were sold and leased back recently on a bare-boat charter basis for a period of eight years.The Monaco-headquartered company said that with purchase options are in its favor  commencing three years following the commencement of the bare-boat charter period and a purchase obligation at the end of the bare-boat charter period, all at predetermined purchase prices.The company informed that MV Panayiota K and MV Agios Spyridonas were also sold and leased back in January 2020 on a bare-boat charter basis for a period of six years…

The largest international shipping association representing shipowners, BIMCO said that it expects dry bulk fleet growth to slow to 3.1% in 2020, after a 3.9% fleet expansion in 2019.As this level of growth still exceeds demand growth, the market will also deteriorate in 2020, it pointed out.Meanwhile, demolitions are expected to rise to 12 million deadweight tonnage (DWT) in 2020, up 4.2 million DWT from 2019. With expected deliveries of 39.3 million DWT, the dry bulk fleet is set to exceed 900 million DWT for the first time.Demolitions this year are expected to include up to half of the VLOCs that were converted from very large crude carriers between 2007 and 2011.At the start of February…

Norwegian dry bulk operator Torvald Klaveness and Japanese trading house Marubeni have merged their panamax pool activities into a new jointly-owned pool management company called Maruklav Management.Maruklav, claimed to be the world's biggest panamax bulker pool, will be led by Michael Jørgensen as the company MD, with Masashi Kobayashi from Marubeni as Deputy MD. The combination of existing fleets in the MG Harrison Shipping and Baumarine Pools will see the venture with a fleet of approximately 30 vessels starting operations in early April."Combining the strengths of major trading house Marubeni and long-term Owner and Operator Klaveness will not only leverage individual capabilities…

Eagle Bulk Shipping (EBS), the US-based fully integrated shipowner-operator engaged in the global transportation of drybulk commodities, announced that is has taken delivery of the sixth and final Ultramax drybulk vessel it agreed to acquire in July.The ship, which has been renamed the M/V Hong Kong Eagle, is a 2016-built, high specification SDARI-64 Ultramax vessel built at Jiangsu Yangzijiang Shipbuilding Co., Ltd., said the owner-operator within the Supramax / Ultramax segment.Gary Vogel, Eagle Bulk’s CEO, commented, “We are pleased to have successfully completed our latest round of vessel acquisitions. With a current fleet of 50 Supramax / Ultramax ships…

Diana Shipping  announced that, through a separate wholly-owned subsidiary, it has entered into a time charter contract with Ausca Shipping Limited, Hong Kong, for one of its Kamsarmax dry bulk vessels, the m/v Myrsini.According to the global shipping company specializing in the ownership of dry bulk vessels, the gross charter rate is US$11,500 per day, minus a 5% commission paid to third parties, for a period of minimum 13 months to about 15 months. The charter is expected to commence on December 4, 2019.The “Myrsini” is a 82,117 dwt Kamsarmax dry bulk vessel built in 2010.The Greece-based company also announced that, through a separate wholly-owned subsidiary, it has entered into a time charter contract with Koch Shipping Pte.

Eagle Bulk Shipping (EBS), the US-based fully integrated shipowner-operator engaged in the global transportation of drybulk commodities, has taken delivery of the fifth of six Ultramax drybulk vessels it has recently agreed to acquire.The ship, which has been renamed the M/V Shanghai Eagle, is a 2016-built, high specification SDARI-64 Ultramax vessel built at Jiangsu Yangzijiang Shipbuilding Co., Ltd, said the owner-operator within the Supramax / Ultramax segment.The acquisition was made by the EBS’ wholly-owned subsidiary, Eagle Bulk Shipco LLC , and was fully funded by restricted cash generated from previous vessel sale proceeds; the M/V Shanghai Eagle will form part of the security for the Subsidiary’s outstanding bond due in 2022.Proforma for the remaining acquisition vessel…

Star Bulk Carriers Corp., a global shipping company focusing on the transportation of dry bulk cargoes, announced that it has agreed to sell the Star Cosmo, a 2005 built Supramax vessel and the Star Epsilon, a 2001 built Supramax vessel."We expect to deliver both vessels to their new owners by the end of this month (November)," the Greece-based shipping company said in a statement.The proceeds from these sales, after prepayment of the debt related to the two vessels, are expected to be approximately $6.0 million and we expect to incur a non-cash loss of approximately $4.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2019.Meanwhile, Star Bulk  completed the installation of 44 scrubber systems…

Norway-based shipowner 2020 Bulkers announced that the time charters of two of its vessels with the global commodity trader Koch Supply and TradingUnder the new deal, the dry bulk shipping company vessels Bulk Santiago and Bulk Seoul will continue working for Koch for another 11-13 months at an index linked rate reflecting a significant premium to the Baltic 5TC index.The time charters also include a sharing of the economic benefit from the scrubbers from January 1st, 2020, with the majority of the benefit accruing to 2020 Bulkers.As part of the agreement, the index linked time charters will commence on December 25th, 2020, for Bulk Santiago and January 1st…

Canadian bulk shipping company Fednav Limited has taken delivery of Federal Montreal, its newest Great Lakes-suitable Handysize vessel. The ceremony was attended by senior management from both Fednav and the shipyard.The Federal Montreal is a 34,500 DWT international ice-class bulk carrier, flagged in the Marshall Islands. Built to trade in the St. Lawrence River and the Great Lakes, the vessel is certified by DNV GL and is equipped with the latest environmental protection technology.Named in honour of the city Fednav calls home, the Federal Montreal is the company's first ship ever to bear the name of a city."Montreal is Canada's transportation capital.

“If consolidation was the solution to all that ails shipping, then container liner companies would be super profitable. They are not. In ‘commoditized’ sectors of the shipping industry, which by now includes pretty much everything apart from very small niche markets, there is hardly any economies of scale at the company level. As long as bigger is not in fact much better, then meaningful consolidation will not happen.”Dr. Roar Adland, visiting scholar at MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics and Professor at the Norwegian School of Economics (NHH).Like any other business…