Oil tankers experienced a tough start to 2017 as freight rates for all crude oil and oil product tankers continued their decline following the brief lift at year-end. For one, VLCCs may not yet have bottomed out. By 7 April 2017, average earnings stood at USD 18,853 per day, down from USD 63,284 per day on 16 December 2016.
The main exporters of thermal coal for coal- fired power plants to the United Kingdom (UK) have experienced a heavy decline in seaborne cargo volumes in 2016. This comes as a result of the UK starting a concerning trend for the dry bulk shipping industry, by close to doubling its Carbon Price Floor (CPF).
On 12 April 2016, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) released its updated World Economic Outlook stating that future economic prospects are now so poor that an immediate, proactive response is called for.
With 12 weeks of 2016 behind us, the dry bulk market is still looking bleak. As the current low demand for transportation of commodities continues, the market is doing what it can by scrapping old ships and restraining from ordering new ones.
There is a new version of BIMCO SmartCon and it combines the fast, simple and easy approach from the online version, together with the track changes and comments from Word. The editor is online and you don't need to install anything, the only requirement is that you have the latest version of a modern browser like Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge.