Daily Briefing November 28 2019
Free to read: Greece’s National Bank sells impaired shipping loans | Frontline secures funding from China for 10 tankers | SSY invests in shipping analytics to keep control of data | Panama flag focuses on improving image
Good morning. Here’s our quick view of everything you need to know today.
The Lloyd’s List Daily Briefing is brought to you by the Lloyd’s List News Desk.
What to watch | Analysis | Opinion | Markets | In other news
What to watch
National Bank of Greece has signed deals to sell a €262m ($288.8m) portfolio of shipping loans to investment funds.
The tanker market is still looking good, even though it will not stay at recent highs, Frontline chief executive Robert Hvide Macleod has predicted, after the company unveiled a $10m loss for the third quarter.
Shipbroker SSY has taken a stake in Gothenburg-based Marine Benchmark, which uses freely available data, via Automatic Identification System signals. Its chairman tells Lloyd’s List the client data gathered through the company’s shipbroking activities will not be commercialised.
Analysis
Low bunker prices, rather than higher rates and volumes, appear to have been behind improved results reported by carriers in the third quarter.
Rotterdam overtook Antwerp in the fourth quarter to take the top spot in the European and Mediterranean container shipping connectivity league, based on the data in the latest Port Liner Shipping Connectivity Index.
Opinion
Panama flag's new director-general of merchant marine tells Lloyd’s List he is keen to improve the administration's image. As a former seafarer and casualty investigator, Rafael Cigarruista knows what steps to take.
Markets
China has formally established what has been described as the world’s leading shipbuilding group following the merger of the country’s two largest state-owned companies.
Freight rates in the dry bulk segment are down as market fundamentals have weighed on the segment once again, with fleet growth standing at 3.5% and BIMCO expecting it to be at around 4.1% by end-December.
In other news
The African Development Bank Group said it has approved a long-term loan of $400m to support the construction of an integrated liquefied natural gas plant, including a liquefaction facility, in Mozambique.
Cosco Shipping Ports has agreed to transfer part of its stake in Abu Dhabi Terminal to its business partner Qingdao Port International Development.
Prominent Hong Kong container terminal figure Peter Levesque will leave Modern Terminals to return to the US as president of Ports America Group at the end of January 2020, after having lived and worked in Asia for the past 25 years.
The US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control has imposed sanctions on Havana-based Corporacion Panamericana for its role in facilitating Venezuela’s oil trade.
Law firm Squire Patton Boggs has launched a global commodities and shipping group, bringing on board in Singapore two experienced legal professionals recruited from Reed Smith.