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Tom Daly News

24 Jun 2021

COSCO, Dalian Exchange Ink Pact on Shipping Futures

© Marina Ignatova / Adobe Stock

China's COSCO Shipping Group and the Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) have signed an agreement to jointly work on developing shipping derivatives such as container capacity futures, according to an article posted by the bourse on Thursday.China's largest shipping line has been talking to the DCE for years about shipping futures.

28 May 2021

COSCO Hopes for Greek Deal on Piraeus Despite Delay

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Chinese shipping group COSCO hopes to reach a deal with the Greek government to complete the purchase of an extra stake in Piraeus, despite running out of time to fulfil a key condition, a top official at the port said.Under a 2016 Greek privatization agreement, COSCO Shipping bought a 51% holding in Piraeus Port Authority (PPA) for 280 million euros ($341 million) and committed to mandatory investments worth about 300 million euros over five years to acquire an additional 16%…

16 Mar 2021

China Seizes 11 Ships in $770 Million Oil Smuggling Bust

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China foiled criminals seeking to smuggle nearly 1 million tonnes of refined oil worth 5 billion yuan ($770 million), with officials seizing 11 ships and detaining 171 suspects in a sprawling swoop on Tuesday, customs authorities said.The operation, which saw customs officers from the port city of Ningbo join forces with local law enforcement and maritime police, spanned eight Chinese regions, including the coastal provinces of Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Shandong and Fujian, the General Administration of Customs said in a statement.A total of 14 gangs were busted on Tuesday, the agency added.

07 Jan 2021

Mercuria Teams Up with Envysion for Project Investment

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Trading house Mercuria and Singapore-based asset manager Envysion Wealth Management have agreed to co-invest in mining and energy projects, as default-hit banks tighten their purse strings and leave commodities firms seeking other funding.The deal, signed on Wednesday, will see Mercuria present potential projects for investment to Envysion, founded and led by former Julius Baer banker Veronica Shim. Envysion will then decide whether to participate via a fund with a start-up amount…

11 Dec 2020

CMA-CGM Suspends Cargo Bound for South China Ports in Early 2021

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CMA-CGM, the world's fourth-largest container shipping line, has told customers it will not take bookings for cargo due to arrive at ports in southern China over several weeks in early 2021 due to a suspension of service by feeder operators.Feeders collect containers from smaller ports and take them to terminals where they can be loaded onto large vessels.CMA-CGM's move comes amid a global shortage of containers that is likely to hamper surging exports from China as the world…

13 Nov 2020

Vale, Chinese Port Ink $651 Mln Iron Ore Facilities Deal

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Brazil's Vale and China's Ningbo Zhoushan Port have signed a deal to invest around 4.3 billion yuan ($650.6 million) in iron ore storage and processing facilities in Zhejiang, a local government statement said on Friday.The move follows the two firms' inauguration of a grinding hub at the port in eastern China in August and further boosts Vale's presence in the top global consumer of the steelmaking raw material.Vale, the world's second-biggest iron ore miner, and Ningbo Zhoushan Port will each hold 50% in the joint venture (JV), whose planned creation was flagged in a filing last month.

30 Jun 2020

COSCO Orders Three LNG Carriers at Hudong-Zhonghua

File photo: A 170,000m3 class LNG carrier delivered by Hudong-Zhonghua in 2017 (Photo: Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding Co)

Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding Co, a unit of China State Shipbuilding Corp, has signed contract to construct three liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers worth 3.9 billion yuan ($551.62 million), reported the state-backed Jiefang Daily on Tuesday.The LNG carriers, each with a capacity of 174,000 cubic metres, will be operated by China COSCO Shipping and be deployed for LNG shipping services for PetroChina International Co, an affiliate of China National Petroleum Corp."The construction of the new LNG carriers is to response government calls to expand domestic demand," Jiefang Daily reported, citin

26 Jun 2020

Hapag-Lloyd to Halt Waste Shipments to China

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German container shipping line Hapag-Lloyd said it had notified customers it will stop accepting cargoes of solid waste, including scrap metal, bound for China that arrive from September 1 onward to comply with new legislation.China in April passed a law, taking effect in September, that holds carriers and importers responsible for the return and disposal of solid waste that fails to meet import requirements.It plans a blanket ban on solid waste imports by end-2020 for environmental reasons."This legislation is applicable to all solid waste cargo such as waste paper, waste plastics, waste meta

08 Jun 2020

China's Coal Imports Fall Nearly 20% in May

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China's coal imports in May fell nearly 20% compared with a year earlier even as demand recovered at power plants and industrial users, customs data showed on Sunday.Analysts and industrial participants had expected China to tighten coal import rules in the second half of 2020 to support domestic miners, and imports starting in July may drop by as much as a quarter from the corresponding 2019 period.Sunday's data showed the country imported 22.06 million tonnes of coal last month, according to the General Administration of Customs released on Sunday.

02 Jun 2020

Dalian Exchange Calls for 'Rational' Iron Ore Trade

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China's Dalian Commodity Exchange on Tuesday asked members to act "rationally" in iron ore futures trade after prices for the steelmaking ingredient held above $100 per tonne."The iron ore market has been facing many uncertainties recently," the Dalian bourse said on its website, adding that it would strengthen investigations and strictly crack down on any irregularities.Dalian's most traded iron ore futures contract, for September delivery, has jumped more than 8% since May 26 on concerns of tight supply from Brazil.It closed at 757 yuan ($106.62) per tonne on Tuesday.($1 = 7.0999 Chinese yua

07 May 2020

China's Iron Ore Imports Jump in April

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China's iron ore imports in April rose 11.4% from a month earlier on robust demand from steelmakers, as downstream sectors started to emerge from lockdowns to contain the coronavirus epidemic.Arrivals of the steelmaking ingredient were 95.71 million tonnes last month, data released on Thursday by the General Administration of Customs showed.That compares with imports of 85.91 million tonnes in March and 80.77 million tonnes a year earlier, when shipments from Brazil's top miner Vale SA were disrupted after a tailings dam disaster.In the first four months of 2020…

07 May 2020

Chinese Coal Imports on the Rise

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China's coal imports in April surged 22% from a year earlier, as traders scrambled to snap up low-cost coal from the seaborne market amid plunging demand for the fuel worldwide because of the coronavirus pandemic.The world's largest coal buyer imported 30.95 million tonnes of coal last month, according to the official data from the General Administration of Customs released on Thursday.That compares to 27.83 million tonnes imported in March and 25.3 million tonnes in April 2019.Imports over the January to April period jumped 26.9% to 126.73 million tonnes, customs said.

18 Feb 2020

Coronavirus Slows China's Belt and Road Push

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When President Xi Jinping made his first state visit this year to Myanmar and signed new infrastructure contracts, there was no indication of the obstacle about to trip up China's plan for railways, ports and highways around the world: the coronavirus.Travel restrictions to prevent the spread of the disease, which has now killed more than 1,800 people, have idled much of the world's second-largest economy and choked key elements of Xi's signature Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).Chinese workers cannot get to overseas projects…

03 Jul 2019

China Sets Top Security Level for Malacca Strait Traffic

File Image: A chinese warship heads to sea. CREDIT: AdobeStock / © VanderWolf

China's Ministry of Transport has raised its security recommendation for Chinese vessels in the Malacca Strait, a major potential bottleneck for global oil, to the highest level, according to a notice dated July 2 sent to shipping companies.The level for Chinese vessels passing through and going to the strait was raised to "3" as of 10 p.m. on July 2 (1400 GMT), according to the notice, whose authenticity was confirmed by an official at the ministry.It said shipping firms "should…

21 Dec 2018

U.S. Soybean Cargo Unloaded in China

File image: Soy cargo loading (CREDIT: AdobeStock / © Igor Strukov

A vessel carrying U.S. soybeans has unloaded its cargo at the port of Qingdao in China on Friday, shipping data showed, amid a trade truce between China and the United States.The Star Laura, originally carrying 69,298 tonnes of soybeans loaded in Seattle, arrived at Qingdao outer anchorage in early November.The vessel's draft is now at 44 percent of its maximum depth, indicating it has emptied its load, data from Refinitive Eikon showed.The ship changed destination to South Korea in early November but came back to the port in eastern Shandong province in December…

06 Nov 2018

China to Encourage Shipping Consolidation

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China will encourage mergers and consolidations among central government-held shipping companies, the head of the state assets regulator said on Tuesday.Xiao Yaqing, chief of state-owned Asset Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) was speaking at a forum on the sidelines of China International Import Expo (CIIE) in Shanghai.(Reporting by Tom Daly and Beijing Monitoring Desk, Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)

20 Aug 2018

Third US Soybean Vessel Left in Limbo Unloads Cargo in China

The Cemtex Pioneer, a vessel carrying U.S. soybeans that was caught up in the China-U.S. trade row, has left east China's port of Nantong near Shanghai, according to shipping data on Thomson Reuters Eikon on Sunday.The vessel's draft is now at 58 percent of its maximum, indicating that it has unloaded its cargo, according to the Eikon data, which showed the ship now headed for the Australian port of Abbot Point.Cemtex Pioneer, which was previously fully laden in port, is the third vessel to unload a U.S. soybean cargo in China over the past week after sitting at anchor off the coast since July.The vessels Peak Pegasus and Star Jennifer earlier unloaded their cargoes at the northeastern port of Dalian.All three cargoes incur a 25 percent import tariff on U.S.

05 Jun 2018

China Busts Gangs Smuggling Scrap Steel

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Customs in China's southeastern Fujian province broke up five gangs smuggling scrap steel in a late-night operation on Monday, the official Xinhua news agency reported.A total of 28 criminal suspects were held in Xiamen, Quanzhou and other cities in the coordinated operation, in which 3,237 tonnes of scrap steel was seized.The gangs had been buying the scrap in China, the world's biggest steel producer, since 2017 and sending it to Southeast Asian countries, Xinhua said.Amount of scrap smuggled was put at around 50,000 tonnes, worth some 78 million yuan ($12.2 million), as gangs sought to cash

26 Jan 2018

Sea Ice Could Disrupt Shipping in Northern China

A January 26 satellite image shows sea ice in Northern China (Photo: China’s National Marine Environmental Forecasting Center)

A unit of China's State Oceanic Administration (SOA) on Friday issued a blue alert for sea ice in a key port area in the north of the country, potentially disrupting commodities shipments, as temperatures in the region plummet. Sea ice in the Liaodong Bay, the northern arm of China's Bohai Sea, now extends 67 nautical miles (124 km) from the shoreline, the North China Sea Marine Forecasting Center said in an 0700 GMT alert. Ice also extends 18 nautical miles out in the northern part of the Yellow Sea, the Center said.

25 Jan 2018

China Agrees to Joint Sanchi Collision Probe

The maritime authorities of China, Panama, Iran and Hong Kong on Thursday signed an agreement to jointly investigate a collision in the East China Sea that caused the worst oil ship disaster in decades, according to China's Ministry of Transport. Investigation work will be organised by a joint team composed of representatives of all four signatories to the agreement, a brief statement from the ministry said. The Panama-registered Sanchi tanker (IMO:9356608), run by Iran's top oil shipping operator, collided on Jan. 6 with the CF Crystal (IMO:9497050) about 160 nautical miles off the coast of China near Shanghai and the mouth of the Yangtze River Delta. The Sanchi, which was sailing from Iran to South Korea, carrying 136,000 tonnes of condensate, an ultra light crude, sank on Jan.

19 Jul 2017

China Iron Ore Output at 20-month High

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China's iron ore output jumped in June to its highest level since October 2015, data showed on Wednesday, the strongest sign yet that soaring prices have spurred miners in the world's top consumer of the steelmaking raw material to boost production. Output rose 5 percent from a year ago to 124.7 million tonnes, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed. Prices have been on a tear in recent months as steel mills have churned out record volumes of metal, taking advantage of bumper margins. Beijing's infrastructure spending has boosted optimism about demand for construction-grade steel.

11 Jan 2018

Rescuers Resume Search for Sanchi Survivors

Rescue boats resumed their search in choppy waters of the East China Sea on Thursday for any survivors from the stricken Iranian oil tanker that collided with a freight ship and burst into flames at the weekend, the Chinese government said. The ship remains at risk of exploding and sinking due to spilled oil as the fire raged for a fifth day, the Ministry of Transportation said in a statement on Thursday. Rescue crews were forced to retreat on Wednesday after a blast on the tanker. "Spilled oil covering the ship body and its surrounding water is still burning, which leaves Sanchi at risk of exploding and sinking," said the MOT in the statement. The ministry has sent 12 rescue ships to search for the 31 remaining tanker crew members and to extinguish the fire.