Citi News

Swedbank has signed the Poseidon Principles, a global framework for integrating climate considerations into lending decisions within ship financeThe Poseidon Principles provide a standardised methodology for data collection and reporting of emissions from banks’ shipping portfolios, with the overall ambition of supporting and facilitating the decarbonization of the shipping industry.The Poseidon Principles are consistent with the policies and ambitions of the IMO, including its…

Australia's Santos can proceed with construction of an undersea pipeline vital to its $4.3 billion Barossa gas project after a court on Monday ruled in favor of the oil and gas firm in a dispute with an Indigenous man looking to pause the work.Work on the pipeline, which will connect the Barossa gas field to a processing plant in the northern Australian city of Darwin, was paused by court order in November after a suit by a member of an Indigenous group regarded as traditional…

The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA), the Port of Rotterdam Authority and 20 partners in the Green & Digital Shipping Corridor are working to reduce 20% to 30% of emissions from international shipping by 2030. This was agreed at the third Green Corridor workshop, held this week in Rotterdam.The Green & Digital Shipping Corridor was established in August 2022 to bring together partners across the supply chain to realise zero and near-zero emissions shipping on the Rotterdam-Singapore route, with the ultimate aim to reach net-zero emissions in 2050.

If shipping is the beating heart of global trade, its pulse is about to get slower. Faced with uncertainty about which fuels to use in the long term to cut greenhouse gas emissions, many shipping firms are sticking with aging fleets, but older vessels may soon have to start sailing slower to comply with new environmental rules.From next year, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) requires all ships to calculate their annual carbon intensity based on a vessel's emissions…

Oil prices surged to seven-year highs on Friday, extending their rally into a seventh week on ongoing worries about supply disruptions fueled by frigid U.S. weather and ongoing political turmoil among major world producers.Brent crude rose $2.16, or 2.4%, to settle at $93.27 a barrel having earlier touched its highest since October 2014 at $93.70.U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude ended $2.04, or 2.3%, higher at $92.31 a barrel after trading as high as $93.17, its highest since September 2014.Brent ended the week 3.6% higher…

Indonesia said on Thursday it would allow 37 vessels loaded with coal to depart, in the strongest sign yet that the world's biggest thermal coal exporter is relaxing its ban on shipments.A senior cabinet minister said in a statement the ban implemented on Jan. 1 had been eased for miners that have met a requirement to sell a portion of their output for local power generation, after the state utility procured enough coal to ensure 15 days of operation."I request that this is supervised closely so this also becomes a moment for us to improve domestic governance…

Containership giant Seaspan Corporation announced on Wednesday that it now has financing lined up for its entire 70-vessel newbuild program.With the completion of the latest $1.4 billion deal in December, Seaspan said its financing proceeds are approximately $6.9 billion.Seaspan, a subsidiary of Atlas Corp, said the $1.4 billion will be used to finance ten 15,000 TEU LNG dual-fuel newbuilds, the last of its recent $7.6 billion containership ordering spree, including three ships that have already been delivered.

Forto has raised $240 million from investors led by Softbank (9984.T), the freight technology startup said on Monday, and will invest in expanding its platform for organizing trade shipments between China and Europe.The five-year-old Berlin firm offers a single platform for managing the journey of a shipping container from origin to destination - a task long handled with pen, paper and post-it notes, said Forto CEO and co-founder Michael Wax.“A shipment from Shanghai to a warehouse in Berlin should not be more difficult than a payment via Paypal or Stripe today…

Leading Japanese lenders have joined an initiative that links the provision of shipping finance to cuts in carbon dioxide emissions as the sector accelerates efforts to go green.In recent weeks, Shinsei Bank Ltd, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, Sumitomo Mitsui Finance & Leasing and MUFG Bank have signed up to the scheme, the banks said.With about 90% of world trade transported by sea, global shipping accounts for nearly 3% of the world’s CO2 emissions.In 2019, a group of leading banks signed up to environmental commitments known as the “Poseidon Principles”…

DeepGreen Metals, an EV battery metals maker, said on Thursday that it will be acquired by blank-check firm Sustainable Opportunities Acquisition Corp in a $2.9 billion deal.The deal will consist of a $330 million private investment from investors along with Allseas, adding to the list of existing strategic investors such as Maersk Supply Service and Glencore.Vancouver-based DeepGreen intends to produce metals from polymettalic rocks, found in deep oceans, for use in batteries…

Many of the world’s biggest lenders to shipping companies fell short of carbon-cutting targets last year in the first analysis of CO2 goals for the sector by financiers, a report showed on Wednesday.Global shipping accounts for nearly 3% of the world’s CO2 emissions and the industry is under pressure to reduce those emissions and other pollution. About 90% of world trade is transported by sea.Last year, a group of leading banks signed up to environmental commitments known as the Poseidon Principles…

Sovcomflot's shares fell below their offer price in their market debut in Moscow on Wednesday after the initial public offering (IPO) of Russia's biggest shipping company was priced at the lower end of its range.Sovcomflot's IPO, the first share offering by a Russian state company since 2013, will allow the government to reduce its stake to 82.8% following the sale of new shares worth about $550 million.The deal was priced at 105 roubles ($1.34) per share, at the lower end of the initial guidance of between 105 roubles and 117 roubles per share…

Russian shipping company Sovcomflot is guiding investors to expect its initial public offering (IPO) to price at the low end of the marketing range, two bookrunners organizing the transaction said on Tuesday.The first big stock market float by a Russian company in a couple of years comes as wider investor sentiment towards Moscow has turned negative after the poisoning of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, protests in Belarus and renewed clashes in Nagorno-Karabakh.Russian assets…

Oil major BP has provisionally chartered a supertanker to store crude oil off Malaysia at this year's lowest rate yet, according to industry sources and data on Refinitiv Eikon.The charter is the latest in a flurry of ship bookings made by oil majors and trading houses after tanker rates plunged. A resurgence in coronavirus cases, poor weather and the end of the northern hemisphere's summer driving season have slowed global oil trade and shipping demand.BP chartered very large crude carrier (VLCC) Gene at $20,500 per day for three months and has the option to extend another three months at $22,000 per day, one of the sources said."It is the cheapest rate so far," he said.BP declined to comment.

The owners of four Iranian fuel cargoes that were confiscated by U.S. authorities last month mounted a challenge to the seizure, asserting their rights to control the cargo, according to a court filing on Tuesday.The U.S. Justice Department last month announced the seizure of 1.116 million barrels of fuel it said was destined for Venezuela. The oil industries of Venezuela and Iran, both OPEC nations, are under U.S. sanctions, and Iran earlier this year irked Washington by sending gasoline cargoes to Venezuela.In the Tuesday filing with the U.S.

SAAM, operator of port, towage and logistics services in the Americas, placed a total of UF 1.2 million (US$42 million) in bonds on the local market Tuesday. The funds will be used primarily to finance the company’s investment plan, it said.“The placement drew strong demand from local capital market investors. This issuance reinforces the market’s confidence in SAAM even in these times of crisis. The funds will be used primarily to finance our growth plan and consolidate our position in the twelve countries where we operate…

UAE global port operator DP World has launched a $9 billion financing into a targeted syndication process involving less than 10 banks, according to banking sources.The financing, which backs the borrower's privatization, was expected to sell down in a general syndication, but instead DP World decided to offer the deal to a select group of relationship banks.“(The deal is) going out to less than ten relationship banks that have already showed interest in the deal but were unable to join in the senior phase…

With the signing by the France-based international lender to global shipping BNP Paribas and the Swiss multinational investment bank Credit Suisse, Signatories of the Poseidon Principles represent around $140 billion in loans to international shipping – about 30% of the total global ship finance portfolio.Poseidon Principles is a global framework for responsible ship finance which helps incentivize shipping’s decarbonization.They establish a common framework to quantitatively assess and disclose whether financial institutions’ lending portfolios are in line with climate goals set by the International Maritime Organization (IMO), a specialized…

Sweden's Alfa Laval reported a fall in quarterly orders on Wednesday on weaker-than-expected demand for ship exhaust cleaners and pumping systems, sending its shares sharply lower.Demand for so-called scrubbers which strip out sulphur from marine fuel has boosted the engineering group as well as Wartsila in the past few years as shipowners prepared for stricter sulphur emissions regulations from next year.Chief Executive Tom Erixon forecast higher sequential demand for Alfa's…

Port operator DP World plans to raise at least $700 million through conventional and Islamic bond issues on Thursday, documents issued by banks involved in the deal showed.Majority owned by the Dubai government, DP World plans to issue benchmark sukuk with a 10-year maturity. Benchmark bonds are generally meant to be over $500 million.The Islamic paper is being marketed with an initial guidance of around 230 basis points over mid-swaps.Barclays, Citi, Deutsche Bank, Dubai Islamic Bank…

Citigroup's veteran shipping finance banker Michael Parker is to become chairman of the bank's shipping & logistics business, a role which will include bolstering the lender's environmental focus in the sector, Citi said on Thursday.In June, Citi was among a group of leading banks who signed up to environmental commitments known as the "Poseidon Principles."These will for the first time integrate efforts to cut CO2 emissions into banks' decision making when providing loans to shipping companies.The initiative highlights how businesses are having to respond to moves by investors around the worl

Eleven banks with a combined shipping finance portfolio of $100bn will for the first time integrate climate considerations into lending decisions to incentivize maritime shipping's decarbonization.Named 'the Poseidon Principles', the new rules are a global framework for assessing and disclosing the climate alignment of financial institutions' shipping portfolios, said joint press release from Rocky Mountain Institute, Global Maritime Forum and UCL Energy Institute.Founding Signatories include Citi, Societe Generale, DNB, ABN Amro, Amsterdam Trade Bank, Credit Agricole CIB, Danish Ship Finance, Danske Bank, DVB, ING and Nordea, and represent around 20% of the global ship finance portfolio."As banks…

The Global Maritime Forum, banking institutions and other maritime industry stakeholders have developed the Poseidon Principles, a global agreement among financial institutions with the aim of decarbonizing shipping. Named after the Greek God of the sea, the Poseidon Principles aim to reduce carbon emissions by aligning financial institutions’ shipping portfolios with (IMO target of a 50 percent reduction in emissions by 2050. The global framework will establish a common way of assessing and disclosing whether a bank’s lending portfolio is compatible with broader climate goals.Søren Toft…