SRTS News

Greek dry bulk owner Diana Shipping has announced that it has received a notice of cancellation of the contract to sell 2005-built panamax bulker . The vessel was sold by Diana Shipping to an unnamed third party in December for $7.275m. The buyer has since elected to exercise their right ... read more

Ships belonging to Cosco and Pacific International Lines (PIL) have called at Australian ports from China in breach of Canberra’s 14-day travel ban put in place in the wake of the coronavirus, sparking anger among local dockworker unions. The news comes as reports emerge of seafarers coming down with coronavirus ... read more

Under pressure Pacific International Lines’ (PIL) is withdrawing its services from the transpacific market. The Singapore line’s last transpacific sailing will be next month. The decision comes as part of a wider strategic review at the SS Teo-led company which will see PIL, the world’s ninth largest liner, focus on ... read more

Mercator reported another quarter mired in red ink yesterday with more and more creditors calling debts in. Once India’s third largest shipowner, Mercator is now severely under pressure, with ICICI Bank the latest financial institution to chase up debts. ICICI has asked the National Company Law Tribunal to initiate insolvency ... read more

Donald Trump has this week directed the Department of Homeland Security, the Pentagon, and the Commerce Department to minimise the amount of US systems dependent on GPS for positioning, navigation and time that could easily be hacked due to the vulnerabilities associated with GPS. This executive order stems from recent ... read more

International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) has warned owners that ships passing through the Panama Canal may face more than 30% higher costs under new Panama Canal Authority measures, and has called on the authority to postpone the introduction of a new charge. According to ICS, The Panama Canal Authority has ... read more

The world’s third largest steelmaker, Nippon Steel, will shut nearly 10% of its production capacity to staunch losses amid falling demand. Nippon Steel has announced it will close three blast furnaces in Japan as it braces to report a $4bn loss for the current financial year. Akio Migita, executive vice ... read more

Offshore driller Valaris has secures a series of new contracts for its drilling units, according to the company’s latest fleet status report. The company has been awarded contracts for four of its drillships. Valaris DS-15 has secured a contract extention due to the exercising of a one-well priced option with ... read more

The US Coast Guard along with the US Air Force and several regional authorities are searching for the captain of panamax bulk carrier , who went missing when the ship was sailing near Guam on Tuesday. The vessel was headed to Australia, from Japan. The captain was last seen in ... read more

Puducherry-based Marine Officers’ Training Academy (MOTA) has been barred from business as one of the worst offenders in India’s sprawling fake seafarer certificates scandal. The director general of shipping has revoked the academy’s licence, the Hindu Business Line reports, for for flouting training rules, including issuing fake certificates to candidates ... read more

Dubai-based DP World is taking a majority 51% stake in TIS Container Terminal in the Port of Yuzhny, Ukraine. DP World’s P&O Maritime Services business already has a joint venture with TIS Group, providing tugging, pilotage and other marine services in several Ukrainian ports. “The Ukrainian container market grew over ... read more

Norway’s Havila Shipping has announced a new contract with Equinor Energy for 2011-built platform supply vessel . The contract is for a firm period of eight months, and includes four options of two months each. The new contract will start in direct continuation of the existing contract for the vessel. ... read more

Teemu Manderbacka, senior R&D engineer at NAPA, has some weather routing advice. Voyage optimisation has empirically demonstrated that it has the capability to provide significant reductions in consumed fuel, and to help choose navigation routes that safely avoid dangerous conditions. However, even after a ship makes these choices and leaves ... read more

As MSC and Maersk prepare to bid farewell to partner HMM, they’ve found a new Korean liner to help out on the transpacific. HMM, South Korea’s flagship carrier, will join rival THE Alliance on April 1. MSC and Maersk, the founder of the 2M grouping, have signed up SM Line ... read more

Arguably no sector in shipping is more constantly on a knife edge than the VLCC sector, a segment prone to extremely rapid swings in earnings. A safe pair of hands is what is needed to navigate the supertanker seas and in Hugo De Stoop, Euronav has the right person for ... read more

Carol Howle has been tasked by the new boss at BP to take the energy giant’s shipping activities towards net zero emissions. In a significant announcement yesterday, BP’s new CEO Bernard Looney has said he will make the company net zero on an absolute basis by 2050 or sooner. Also ... read more

The orderbook for world shipping will likely be shunted backwards in the wake of the coronavirus while more than 200 vessels at repair yards in China are set to be redelivered later than planned. A hefty 69% of the Chinese shipbuilding orderbook is meant to be delivered this year, a ... read more

The bargain hunters made another round of acquisitions this week in the secondhand bulker S&P market with the hope that the capesize market has bottomed out, while the tanker S&P market saw a downward correction this week with the coronavirus casting a shadow on the VLCC market. Owners and charterers ... read more

Emanuele Lauro’s Scorpio Bulkers has sealed a deal with Norway’s Ocean Yield to sell and lease back ultramax pair SBI Cronos and SBI Achilles and kamsarmax SBI Lynx. Scorpio has sold the three vessels for $62.8m, and says the deal will add around $33.6m of liquidity after the repayment of ... read more

Two major offshore accomodation platform operators Prosafe and Floatel International have mutually decided to discontinue their merger process due to financial uncertainty and process risk. The two companies reached a conclusion that any near term completion of a value enhancing merger is unlikely. Floatel and Prosafe signed a merger agreement ... read more