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What to watch

What to watch

A new shipping company is channelling Venezuelan cargoes to Asia via ship-to-ship transfers off the Gulf of Guinea in the latest logistics route established to disguise the origin and destination of cargoes as crippling US sanctions continue to choke exports.

Kidnappings this week brought the number of seafarers seized by pirates in the Gulf of Guinea to 57 in December alone, according to Dryad Maritime.

Everyone can agree that 2020 will be an unprecedented year in the shipping industry, given the new sulphur regulations. For dry bulk shipping however, the views are mixed about what the new decade will bring in terms of bulker demand and earnings.

Samskip’s new chief executive Kari-Pekka Laaksonen tells Lloyd’s List that the efforts to expand into the shortsea and logistics space by deepsea carriers only go to show the value of its offering.

From March 1, ships without exhaust gas scrubbers installed will not be allowed to carry fuel exceeding 0.5% in their fuel tanks.

Hyundai Merchant Marine chief executive Jae Hoon Bae has warned that 2020 will be a year of “considerable uncertainty”, marked by geopolitical uncertainty and an oversupplied market.

Euronav has entered into a sale-and-leaseback deal for three very large crude carriers with China’s Taiping & Sinopec Financial Leasing.

National oil companies and oil majors are seen entering into arbitrage plays, joining traditional trading houses already in the fray. This increase in arbitrage activity is supporting interest in the fifth tank lined up at SLNG's terminal.

Sea Europe has urged the EU to act against alleged protectionism in Asian shipbuilding centres, after blaming South Korea for the recent suspension of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s exploratory talks on new global shipbuilding subsidy rules.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard seized a ship suspected of fuel smuggling and arrested 16 Malaysian crew members, according to unconfirmed reports based on claims made by the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency.

South Korea’s shipbuilders closed out the year with a late flurry of orders, which — while missing annual targets — still helped bring in some much-needed work.

Maersk has welcomed the strong uptake of its spot product, which has gained a strong momentum since its launch six months ago, growing to currently cover one quarter of the company’s short-term or spot market volumes.

Two of Japan’s leading energy groups, JXTG Holdings and Inpex, will try to mitigate the risks of shipping crude across the Strait of Hormuz by investing in a new crude oil exchange being set up in the United Arab Emirates.

Two separate projects in Myanmar and the Philippines aim to break ground this year and in 2021 to import LNG to supply the power generation sector.

US exporters of liquefied natural gas had a busy year in 2019, with exports rising by more than 60%.

Shipping figures Dick Welsh of the Isle of Man Ship Registry and Graham Hockley of Trinity House have both received honours in the Queen’s New Year honours list.