By Keith Wallis SINGAPORE, June 23 (Reuters) - Freight rates for very large crude carriers (VLCCs) could creep higher as more ships are chartered for floating storage and crude oil shipments increase ahead of the northern winter, brokers said. "There might be a slow creep up towards 60 (on the Worldscale measure)," said Ashok Sharma, managing director of ship broker BRS Baxi … [Read more...]
Touted Sea Change in Indonesia Shipping Network May Hit Choppy Waters
By Eveline Danubrata and Cindy Silviana JAKARTA, June 23 (Reuters) - With its towering new cranes and wharves that can handle some of the world's biggest ships, Indonesia's main international port has been shaking off its reputation for inefficiency and congestion with a $2.5 billion upgrade. But the revamp is just the first step in an ambitious drive to overhaul shipping in … [Read more...]
Fitch: Global Ports Sector Faces Structurally Slower Growth
LONDON, June 22 (Fitch) Traffic growth in the ports sector is likely to remain well below historical levels for the foreseeable future, due to fundamental structural changes in the industry and global trade, Fitch Ratings says. A move towards protectionism would represent a significant additional risk, with the potential to reverse sector growth. Global port traffic growth … [Read more...]
A Giant Iceberg the Size of Delaware is About to Break Off Antarctica
By Alister Doyle OSLO, June 21 (Reuters) - One of the biggest icebergs on record is like a "niggling tooth" about to snap off Antarctica and will be an extra hazard for ships around the frozen continent as it breaks up, scientists said on Wednesday. An area of the Larsen C ice shelf, about as big as the U.S. state of Delaware or the Indonesian island of Bali, is connected by … [Read more...]
U.S. Coast Guard Interviews ACX Crystal Crew After Warship Collision
By Tim Kelly and Kiyoshi Takenaka TOKYO, June 20 (Reuters) - The United States Coast Guard will on Tuesday start interviewing the crew of a Philippines-flagged container ship which collided with a U.S. warship in Japanese waters killing seven American sailors. The U.S. coast guard investigation is one several into the incident on Saturday involving the … [Read more...]
APM Terminals to Cut 160 Staff at Gothenburg Terminal Amid Strikes
COPENHAGEN, June 20 (Reuters) - Port operator APM Terminals, part of A.P. Moller-Maersk, said it will cut 160 staff at its Gothenburg terminal in Sweden, the largest in Scandinavia, as labour disruptions had caused container volumes to drop by 25 percent over the past year. "We have lost about 70,000 containers in revenue over the past year," Henrik Kristensen, head of APM … [Read more...]
Investigators Seek Answers into Containership Collision with USS Fitzgerald
By Tim Kelly and Kaori Kaneko TOKYO, June 19 (Reuters) - Nearly an hour elapsed before a Philippine-flagged container ship reported a collision with a U.S. warship, the Japanese coastguard said on Monday, as investigations began into the accident in which seven U.S. sailors were killed. The U.S. Navy confirmed that all seven missing sailors on the USS Fitzgerald were found … [Read more...]