We take a look at what was said in the market in the past week.
“[It is a] hunting licence for growth purposes.”
Greek boxship owner Costamare is gunning for growth after landing a $120m loan from RBS.
“If more owners took the same attitude then the supply side of tonnage would look quite different and it would benefit the market.”
Frontline Management boss Jens Martin Jensen gives competitors a lashing for not toeing the Norwegian’s line when markets were wrecked.
“When people asked us at the end of 2008 what we thought of 2009, we said we were cautiously optimistic. In 2009 we made around $100m profit. We got the same question last year. What do you think about 2010? We said we were cautiously optimistic. Now we have made $173m for the first nine months, so it has not been a bad year historically.”
Jensen points out that Frontline hasn’t actually done too bad in atrocious tanker markets, thank you very much.
“If you ask me about 2011, I am an optimistic person by nature. I hope it will be OK.”
Jensen is hardly head-over-heels about the year to come, though.
"There is no 'hallelujah' from this result. And the company is giving only modest guidance going forward."
Martin Sommerseth Jaer, an analyst at Arctic Securities, is not singing Frontline’s praises after its third-quarter result.
“It is disgraceful that some clubs insist on cash payments rather than a bank guarantee. This is real cartel activity that even some of the clubs find horrifying.”
Tysers’ P&I chief Martin Hubbard says members don’t need to open their wallets to get inside his door.
(Tysers chief seeks cap on release calls.)
“Even if it was a weak month, that becomes the acid test for your 2011 spot vessels. Where banks used to accept your numbers almost as a formality, now they’ve become much more proactive about challenging them.”
A tanker player on the erosive effects of some banks challenging owners on traditional methods of projecting spot-market earnings.
(Lenders squeeze tanker owners.)
“There’s no question that banks are looking to put owners down a chute so they have less room to manoeuvre.”
One dry-bulk owner reckons the relationship between financiers and owners is going down the toilet.
(Lenders squeeze tanker owners.)
“A tanker sale earlier this week at a level 5% to 10% below current indications could be the canary in the coal mine.”
Credit Suisse equity analyst Gregory Lewis is not so chirpy about Tsakos Energy Navigation’s patchy report of a planned tanker order after winning a charter contract.
(Analyst takes dim view of TEN’s spending plans.)
“Sadly, Maersk seem to be as out of touch with their staff as the French royalty were to their people. The profits have been achieved on the back of job losses for highly-skilled and experienced personnel, and cuts in operating costs that have left some ships with food budgets that would barely run to cover the costs of cooking cream cakes or providing something to eat them off, since paper serviettes were banned.”
Nautilus head Mark Dickinson sinks his teeth into Maersk ‘Marie Antoinette’ Line after it asked staff to join them in a bit of cake-eating to celebrate bumper profits.
“When these ships are built there is just one-year warranty on equipment, so they do not want them constructed too early. It is better to hold off until a firm buyer is found.”
A source on a couple of supramaxes ordered by Jiangsu Qinfeng by a bunch of Zhejiang shipping professionals who hopefully kept the receipt.
(Speculative-built ship finds buyer.)
“This order contract was sealed in the summer.”
Hyundai Mipo Dockyard admits it left us all hanging about a $148m order from Novoship for four supramaxes.
(Novoship places $148m order at Hyundai Mipo.)
“There is no silver bullet on the subject.”
Baltic Exchange chief executive Jeremy Penn is adamant that he will still soon pull the trigger on the BaltEx electronic trading screen despite a backlash from some brokers.
(Baltic guns stick on BaltEx screen.)
"Naval warship INS Angre fired warning shots ahead of the fleeing merchant ship's bow and stopped it. It is being escorted back to Mumbai.”
Indian defence spokesperson Manohar Nambiar after a Restis bulker was hauled back to port over an alleged cargo dispute.
“This is a question we should ask ministers - do they want to see a fuel price rise over Christmas because of Somali piracy?”
An MoD source in the UK reckons those pesky pirates could be about to freeze all of us out of it this winter.
“We are really more competitive than Singapore and we are definitely competitive with Dubai Drydocks.”
Nakilat managing director Muhammad Ghannam gets boastful as the Qatari owner opens its new $2.8bn, high-tech shipyard complex in Ras Laffan.
(Qatar ups the ante with gleaming yard complex.)
“We are busy and the challenge is to find workers.”
Gdansk Shipyard board member Arkadiusz Aszyk as it plans a huge wave of employments in the next few months.
Here’s a hint, Arkadiusz: try Ireland.
(Gdansk to take in 500 more workers.)
“These ships are the gas stations that never get to go anywhere. They never dock and the crews rarely get ashore for the duration of their contracts, which can be up to 10 months. That is a long time to be confined to such a small vessel.”
Reverend Peter Chase of the Mission to Seafarers’ boat Flying Angel gives the depressing truth of seafarers’ lives onboard ships calling at Fujairah.
(Visits keep the ‘Angel’ on the job from dawn till dusk.)
“I have not been paid for 17 months. I have a wife and four children who were in college. My family had to sell our plot of land to survive and my sons cannot afford to finish their education.”
Capt Gulam, master of the Azraq-7, which has been abandoned off Fujairah, leaving him unpaid in 14 months.
(Saga to drag on as crew caught in crossfire of cargo interests.)
“He was a man with the mark of excellence in every work that his hand touches, as we see evidence of some of his legacies.”
Philippines labour and employment secretary Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz pays a glowing tribute to Gregorio Oca, chairman of seafarers’ union Amosup, who died this week aged 83.
“Government and industry sources can confirm that the claim by the AAB that the group had attacked the tanker M Star is valid.”
Apparently the picture of a terrorist beside an image of the VLCC wasn’t convincing enough proof.
The US Maritime Administration finally confirms that terrorist group Abdullah Azzam Brigades carried out the attack on the MOL tanker M Star earlier this year.
