Shipping news

[Behappyalways]

Container Shipping’s Idled Fleet Set to Soar Next Year
https://gcaptain.com/container-shippings...next-year/

[weijian]

Recently I listened to a podcast on Bloomberg's Oddlots and a long time shipping executive commented "A shipping glut may not lead to shortages but a shortage probably will lead to a glut."

Idled Ships, Empty Containers. Ocean Shipping Faces Its Biggest Slump in Years.

China’s exports fell nearly 10% in December from a year ago, the third straight month of declines and the biggest drop since Beijing locked down the port city of Wuhan in early 2020. The falling volumes have pushed global ship freight rates into a downward spiral, with the cost of sending a box from China to Los Angeles dropping to $1,238 this week from $15,600 this time last year, according to the Freightos Baltic Index.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/idled-ships...s-6f8dfcc4

[Behappyalways]

Other carriers continued to post strong results through the first quarter of this year, buoyed by high rates on one-year contracts that ran from May 1, 2022, to the end of last month.

Shipping line Zim gets hammered by high spot-rate exposure
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/shippi...e-exposure

[Behappyalways]

Container ships are waiting at Asian ports as retailers struggle to shift excess stock
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/08/25/ships-wa...tock-.html

[weijian]

I had thought that the US's port levies were based on China-flagged or built ships. But it seems like the leasing company is also a factor and ship leasing is actually very common (For example, YZJF Maritime Fund are doing ship leasing). An extract from Google's AI overview (in italics below):

The owner of a ship does not change due to refinancing, as refinancing is a loan agreement where the owner uses the ship as collateral. The original owner remains the legal owner, but a new lender will gain a security interest in the vessel, which is officially registered with the maritime authority.

Market sees higher ship refinancing amid conflicts between US and China

Likely beneficiaries of the spat are shipowners that are neither Chinese nor American, such as Singapore-based players.

He said: “Some lessees anticipated the development and shifted their financing away from China earlier in the year, while others that delayed such moves now find themselves in a challenging position.”

Chinese leasing companies have around US$100 billion of shipping assets under their control, he noted.

Now with China-linked vessels being hit by the US’ drive to curb China’s dominance in the maritime industry – via the levying of fees on China-built, owned or operated ships calling at US ports – Rose said the Chinese lessors may not be as competitive for vessels on US trade lanes as a result.

https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/compani...-and-china