The Friday Flyer - March 27th 2015

This week Drewry Maritime Research launched its latest edition of the Multipurpose Shipping Market Review and Forecast, which suggested that global dry cargo demand growth, forecast at 5 percent per annum from 2016 to 2019, will be offset by falling project cargo volumes over the next twelve to eighteen months.

"The fall in oil prices, coupled with growing demand and a diminishing fleet should be good news for the multipurpose shipping sector. However, it appears that the flipside of lower bunker prices is a global decline in oil and gas investment projects. There have already been reports of fewer project cargoes available for the multipurpose fleet to carry as project investment has started to slow," said lead Drewry analyst Susan Oatway.

With the fall in prices, Drewry says that there is less incentive to invest in oil and gas projects - one of the largest project cargo sectors. This will, in turn, mean a reduction of available cargo and slower demand growth for the fleet.

"Our analysis of the fleet shows that the simple multipurpose fleet is in decline, with little investment beyond replacement tonnage. However the more advanced vessels, the project carriers, are seeing fleet growth of around 3.5 percent per annum to end 2018. It is the cargo for these vessels that is directly affected by this slowdown in the sector. 

"The outlook for the multipurpose sector will be largely determined by developments within the container and bulk markets and how far they will encroach on general, breakbulk and project cargo. As usual, the effect of lower oil prices has delayed the project market, but we expect 2015 to be a slow year as the sector readjusts to the idea that oil is no longer priced at USD100 per barrel," added Oatway.

Find out more about the report here, and if you have anything to say on the subject, don't forget that we have HLPFI's annual ships and shipping lines supplement in the May/June edition of the magazine. Contact editorial@heavyliftpfi.com to make an editorial contribution.

In business 

Geodis revenue up 1 percent

Geodis, which recently rebranded, achieved a 1 percent year-on-year increase in revenue in 2014 at EUR6.871 billion (USD7.43 billion).

NBIS develops new escort/pilot agreement

Robert Moore, NBIS chief legal officer, says that haulage companies should have an agreement with the pilot/escort outlining the roles, responsibilities and assumption of risks in escorting the oversize/overweight load.

Reference guide to Iranian sanctions published

The North P&I club has produced a reference guide which aims to simplify EU and US sanctions legislation governing what can and cannot be shipped into/out of Iran.

When a ship's not a ship it's a problem

Rotterdam-based law firm AKD says the lack of an unambiguous term to describe a 'ship' in several jurisdictions represents a potential threat to asset security for financiers, particularly in the offshore and renewable energy sectors.

Capacity developments

CEA Surelift offers modular spreader beams

April will see the launch of a new provider of modular spreader beams.

Strele in big Baltic crane delivery

Lithuania's Strele Logistics has taken delivery of a 500-tonne capacity truck-mounted telescopic crane from Liebherr, which it claims is the largest model in the Baltics.

Ritchie completes record auction

Ritchie Bros. had sold more than USD54 million of equipment for Energy Transportation in Casper, Wyoming.

Shipment of the week

The first five of 110 high-speed railcars have been delivered to the UK port of Southampton from Kasado, Japan onboard Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics' ro-ro vessel Tamerlane.

On the move

Hapag Lloyd swaps finance chiefs

Effective April 1, Peter Ganz is to relinquish his post as company cfo of the merged Hapag-Lloyd/CSAV operation (trading as Hapag Lloyd).

Corpus Christi calls on Collin

Port Corpus Christi has appointed Rosie Collin as its director of community relations.

Network and association developments

The Worldwide Project Consortium (WWPC) has appointed Kamar Al-Ard Company as an exclusive member for Iraq.

The CLC Projects network has welcomed Multicont International Forwarding Logistics as a new member representing Slovakia.

The XLProjects (XLP) network added two new members in the USA - Global Shipping Services and Servitrans - as well as CNS Intertrans in China.

All about Evie

Evie was pleased to see pictures this week of HLPFI's Peter Edwards enjoying himself at Breakbulk China, as he prepared to officially start the 21st BUSINESSrun in Shanghai (see below).

While Peter felt privileged to be chosen for such a task, Evie and the rest of HLPFI were delighted to hear that the run, which is organised by Flensborg and Associates, generated an impressive USD1,500 that will be donated to charity Hands On Shanghai.

Evie also congratulates HAROPA's Port of Le Havre for being distinguished by the European Seaport Organization (ESPO) after achieving the Port Environmental Review System (PERS) certification earlier this year.