The number of reported attacks against ships has doubled in Asia over the first half of 2020, elevating security concerns for mariners across the region.A total of 51 cases of piracy and armed robbery against ships (including 50 actual incidents and one attempted incident) were reported in Asia from January through June 2020
Reduced volumes are currently posing a major challenge to container shipping due to the COVID-19 crisis. So far, freight rates have been held up by the massive blanking of sailings that carriers have put in place.However, even before this crisis, the container shipping industry was saddled with overcapacity carried over from the previous decade
Oil product tankers earnings have skyrocketed in the first half of 2020, while the sale and purchase (S&P) activity of the oil product tanker market has slowed to the lowest level since 2016. Data from VesselsValue highlight that in the first five months of 2020, only 2.8 million deadweight tons (DWT) of oil product tankers have shifted hands in the second-hand market
Carnival Corp reported a quarterly net loss of $4.4 billion on Thursday, as the cruise operator took major write-downs on the sale of some ships and was virtually crippled by the global COVID-19 pandemic.Shares of the Florida-based company, which also warned of a net loss for the rest of the year, fell over 4% in premarket trading.
South Korea's shipbuilding giant Hyundai Heavy Industries has secured an order to build two very large crude carriers for unnamed European shipowners.The value of the orders for two 300,000-ton VLCCs, which will be equipped with scrubbers to meet IMO emission regulations, is 200 billion South Korean Won ($162.5 million).The VLCCs will be 330 meters long, 60 meters wide, and 29.7 meters high.
Huntington Ingalls Industries (NYSE: HII) said that its Ingalls Shipbuilding division has received a $1.5 billion fixed-price-incentive modification to a previously awarded contract for the procurement of the detail design and construction of amphibious transport dock LPD 31. The ship will be the 15th in the San Antonio class and the second Flight II LPD.
Shares of U.S. cruise operators sunk on Thursday after the Grand Princess ocean liner, owned by Carnival Corp, was barred from returning to its home portof San Francisco on coronavirus fears after at least 20 people aboard fell ill.Shares of Carnival, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings and Royal Caribbean Cruises fell between 9% and 12% amid a broader sell-off in U.S. stock markets.
U.S. crude exports from Corpus Christi, Texas, have surged to a record in recent weeks, often surpassing hubs such as Houston and Beaumont, Texas, thanks to faster-than-expected infrastructure additions.The infrastructure boom at Corpus Christi helped push crude exports there to a weekly record of 1.
South Korean shipbuilding giant Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) has secured orders for a total of six liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers from European and Asian shipowners, totaling $1.13 billion.The ships - four LNG carriers for a European client and two others for an Asian shipping company - will be installed with a dual-fuel propulsion system to enhance efficiency and reduce toxic gas
The most complex cruise ship lengthening ever undertaken is clipping along at Fincantieri’s Palermo yard.The final welding cut to Windstar Cruises’ Star Breeze was completed and the ship’s 25.6-meter/84-foot prefabricated midsection was glided into place between the two halves in the drydock, an operation that took just half an hour.
PAO Sovcomflot (SCF Group), which serves the energy shipping and offshore services to the oil and gas industries, reported in the first half of 2019 revenues rose 16.6% ($828m vs. $710.1m), TCE revenue rose 19.1% ($609m vs. $511.3m) and EBITDA rose 42.4% ($381.2m vs. $267.7m) as compared to the first half of 2018.
So far in 2019, 41 VLCCs have been added to the global fleet compared to three vessel demolitions, said the world's largest oil tanker shipping company Frontline Ltd.An additional 33 VLCCs are scheduled to be delivered in 2019 with 43 more to follow in 2020 before the order-book declines sharply.