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Tag: Shipping

[video] Too many ships

Dec 6, 2012 4:08pm by beyondbrics
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Increasing demand for commodities in the past decade boosted shipping and encouraged shipbuilding. But just as giant bulk carriers take a while to stop, so does building them. Dinesh Sharma, senior consultant at Drewry Maritime Advisors, explains to Jonathan Wheatley, deputy emerging markets editor, what impact overcapacity is having on the industry.

Tags: , , Posted in Global |

Shipbuilding in China’s shadow

Nov 29, 2012 3:37pm by Jonathan Wheatley
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Who’d be a shipbuilder? New figures from Drewry Maritime Research show the bleak prospects facing the industry after a slump in world trade – or, more precisely, a slump in the rest of the world’s trade with China. Continue reading »

Tags: Posted in Global |

East-west shipping: steering the course

Oct 12, 2012 1:30pm by Avantika Chilkoti
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Last month there was bad news for the world economy from the shipping industry. As beyondbrics reported, freight volumes between China and Europe began to fall in July, and were still dropping – at a time of year when they usually start to rise.

Today, the situation is no better, but it seems that shipping companies are learning to cope with the challenge. Continue reading »

Tags: , Posted in Global |

Chart of the week: Shanghai shipping rates take a plunge

Sep 17, 2012 6:08pm by Jonathan Wheatley
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The cost of shipping consumer goods from China to Europe should be peaking around now, as retailers gear up for the busiest period of the shopping calendar.

But not this year. Lloyd’s List reports on Monday that the Shanghai Containerised Freight Index has fallen by more than 5 per cent in the past week, bringing the rate per TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit) to $1,218, down from $1,934 four months ago. Continue reading »

Tags: , Posted in Global |

APM-Global Ports: a win-win?

Sep 10, 2012 6:07pm by Courtney Weaver
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With Russian news often dominated by the woes of foreign investors like BP and Telenor, it is always nice to hear a positive story about the country’s investment climate. The announcement that Denmark’s AP Møller-Maersk is finally entering the Russian market fits the bill. Continue reading »

Tags: , , , , Posted in Europe, Russia |

India’s stop-gap solution to Iranian oil sanctions

Aug 3, 2012 1:20pm by Andrew Bowman
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As sanctions on Iranian oil exports tighten, some relief for Tehran has come from the Indian government, which will support insurance for tankers transporting Iranian crude to Indian refiners.

India follows China and Japan in providing insurance support in response to EU sanctions introduced on 1 July, targeting insurers of ships carrying Iranian oil. But it seems likely to be no more than a stop-gap solution to shortages already hitting India’s refineries, as new sanctions are expected to make the trade increasingly difficult. Continue reading »

Tags: , , , Posted in India |

Bulgarian freight: a sale with potential

Jun 14, 2012 6:24pm by Andrew MacDowall
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The privatisation of Bulgaria’s rail freight business offers interesting opportunities both for potential investors and the country’s transport sector.

While BDZ Tovarni Prevozi (officially translated as “BDZ Cargo”), the cargo operator of state-owned rail firm BDZ is in seriously need of modernisation and restructuring, Bulgaria’s position on major trade routes between the Middle East and Europe could give it the chance to develop as a significant regional logistics player. Continue reading »

Tags: , , , Posted in Bulgaria, Europe |

Slovenia: courting Asian shipping

Jun 8, 2012 4:28pm by Kester Eddy
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Last week a delegation from Luka Koper, operators of Slovenia’s Adriatic port, were charming folks in Tokyo and Osaka; this week it’s they’ve been talking the talk in Shanghai (albeit as part of the North Adriatic Ports Association) at Transport Logistics China 2012.

Given that Slovenia’s economy is performing badly (0.2 per cent GDP contraction in the first quarter) and that the country is in the grip of a government austerity programme, can such expensive trips abroad – and from a majority state-controlled company at that – be justified? Continue reading »

Tags: , Posted in Europe, Slovenia |

Croatia’s shipyards: clock is ticking

May 2, 2012 6:07pm by Andrew MacDowall
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Croatia’s coastline is best know for tourism, which is doing just fine. The Adriatic coastline is also home to the Croatian shipbuilding industry, and the Port of Rijeka. The port has potential, but the shipyards face a rather more uncertain future.

In April, the European Commission urged Croatia to speed up the process of restructuring its five beleaguered shipyards in the run-up to the country’s EU accession in July next year. The choices are pretty tough. Continue reading »

Tags: , Posted in Croatia, Europe |

Rising inventories: not the full story

Jan 19, 2012 1:53pm by Jonathan Wheatley
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Much has been made of the recent precipitous fall in shipment to inventory ratios in Asia – a precursor, it is feared, of the kind of recessions last seen following the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008-09 and the dotcom bubble burst of 2001, when inventory levels also fell off a cliff.

But Frederic Neumann of HSBC argues in a note on Thursday that the ratios are a coincident rather than leading indicator and that other factors, including advances in supply chain efficiency, are at play. A slowdown is on its way, he says, but on nothing like the scale seen before. Continue reading »

Tags: , , Posted in Asia, Global, South Korea |

Brazil’s Vale: new and improved?

Dec 29, 2011 7:28pm by Samantha Pearson
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According to Vale’s new management team, the Brazilian miner has one big resolution for 2012: to become more transparent.

The company’s new chief executive, Murilo Ferreira, and revamped top management have spent the last month flying around the globe, trying to convince investors, analysts and journalists of precisely this. Continue reading »

Tags: , Posted in Brazil, LatAm |
From FT.com December 29, 2011

Vale, the world’s largest iron ore producer by volume, took a significant step towards its goal of controlling all its shipping to China after it was confirmed that one of its giant new Valemax ships had been allowed to dock in China for the first time.

A person familiar with the situation confirmed that the Berge Everest, owned and operated by Berge Bulk, part of Hong Kong’s BW Group, but chartered long-term to Vale, was allowed into the port of Dalian, north-east China, to unload on Wednesday.

Continue reading after the break

Tags: , Posted in Brazil, China, Global |

Slump in shipping costs suggests Chinese exports to Europe slumping too

Nov 30, 2011 11:06am by David Keohane
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Shipping costs between China and Europe are plummeting as demand from the beleaguered eurozone contracts sharply. And while falling demand might not be much of a surprise the speed of the drop in transport costs is an eyebrow raiser – it has slumped by 39 per cent in just under 3 months, according to Bloomberg.

A worrying indicator of what’s to come. Continue reading »

Tags: , , , Posted in Asia, China, Europe |

Cranes in EMs: heavy lifting next year

Nov 25, 2011 7:00am by Rob Minto
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Picture: Konecranes Plc

When you’ve just been asked to build the world’s biggest gantry crane, and your order book is at it’s second fullest ever, it may seem odd that your share price has halved in a year.

But that’s the situation Pekka Lundmark, chief executive of Konecranes (KCR1V:HEX), finds himself in. The main reason? Next year is looking bleak, and emerging markets aren’t going to help.

Continue reading »

Tags: , , Posted in Global |

Panama: from poor man’s Switzerland to poor man’s Singapore

Nov 16, 2011 7:00pm by John Paul Rathbone
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Somebody forgot to tell Panama about the eurozone crisis. While the rest of the world is slowing, its economy is set to expand by 10 per cent this year and 7.5 per cent next. And those are real figures, as Finance Minister Frank de Lima told beyondbrics. In the nominal terms most people use, those numbers hit the teens. Few countries, perhaps none, can match that. Continue reading »

Tags: , Posted in LatAm, Panama |
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