One of the shipping brokers, Intermodal, has an interesting weekly commentary on the shipping sector
(Page 1, Left column)
- Shanghai lockdown: Current lockdown, and potential impact on container and dry bulk sectors
- Thoughts on newbuilding orders (currently slanted towards LNG tankers* and containers)
- Dry bulk Sale & purchase commentary
(Page 3)
Dry bulk indices still somewhat flipped i.e. small category vessels still have stronger rates than largest (Cape) category. But, middle category i.e. Panamax & Supramax seem to be strengthening.
That said, if I am a dry bulker owner with medium and larger vessels, I am opting for some short term chartering.
https://www.hellenicshippingnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2022…
- That major Qatar LNG announcement 2.5 years ago seems to have been good PR. The plan was to order 100 LNG tankers from three major South Korean shipyards. The Qatar LNG entity then followed up, and secured slots at two Chinese shipyards for additional vessels.
With the benefit of subsequent news, it seems the Qatari effort seems more like a “grand planning” session. At least, that’s what it seems to be so far. Last week, Japanese shipping entity, Mitsui OSK (MOL) came to an agreement with Qatar LNG to proceed with building of four LNG tankers that will be service Qatari LNG projects.
According to the Qatari officials, other ship-owners have been selected by QatarEnergy as part of the process and will be announced in the future.
https://www.maritime-executive.com/article/mol-signs-first-a…
Quite interesting as several of the publicly traded LNG ship owners (Teekay LNG, Gaslog) have been taken private in the last year. The cynic in me says “Financial transparency goes Poof with private deals”
Going back to the Intermodal link.
The big tanker merger between Frontline (FRO) & Euronav (EURN) has the potential to get messier. I am just imagining a hedge fund type jumping into the mix, muddying things a little, and seeing if they can extract something extra out of the situation. (Page 8)
(Page 8)