TOP STORY
Momentum is building behind IMO members’ efforts to agree on legally binding measures on global greenhouse gas pricing. This week’s Marine Environment Protection Committee meeting closed with a clear majority of developed and developing countries endorsing this path going forward.
IN THE NEWS
Shipbroker Affinity (Shipping) has employed two big names in broking as it starts to consider its succession moves and the skillset it needs to guide the industry into a period of fleet renewal. Sale-and-purchase specialist Sebastian Davenport-Thomas will join the company on 2 April and be one of the most senior brokers in the brokerage’s 11-person strong S&P team. Affinity has also bought Vortex Shipbroking — a company set up by clean product broker Mike Rudd in May 2018. Rudd and his son, Max, will also join on 2 April.
Shipowner names have started to emerge for what look set to be at least 62 LNG carrier newbuildings that QatarEnergy plans to build under Phase 2 of its huge ship acquisition project for more than 120 vessels and counting. Qatari shipowner Nakilat’s name features prominently with a total of 35 vessels, along with the names of several Chinese owners, reflecting Qatar’s sales ambitions for its new LNG volumes.
Two weeks after signing a deal to salvage the 50,400-dwt True Confidence (built 2011) drifting off Yemen, the Houthi-stricken ship is still not safe at port after a series of snags. Spokespersons for the vessel’s unidentified Middle Eastern owners confirmed that its salvage operation has been “hampered by several challenges” and “remains underway”.
Eight crew members were confirmed dead and two more were reported missing after their chemical/product tanker capsized off Japan on Wednesday. The country’s coastguard said one Indonesian seafarer was rescued safely from the 1,200-dwt Keoyoung Sun (built 1996), which overturned off Yamaguchi prefecture on the southwest coast.
US-based trader Hartree Partners has struck its first major shipping deal since selling off its last VLCCs in 2022 by inking a series of tanker newbuilding contracts in China. Shipbuilding market sources said the company has booked six MRs at Penglai Zhongbai Jinglu Ship Industry.
A real estate company backed by John Fredriksen has bought the Oslo area offices of Equinor for a single Norwegian krone. Norwegian Property — bought in 2021 by John Fredriksen, whose daughters sit on the board — said on Tuesday that a subsidiary had purchased the award-winning building in nearby Fornebu.
COMMENT
In this week’s Streetwise column, Joe Brady looks at how Harry Vafias’ C3is, a spin-off of a spin-off, has kept the torch burning on dilutive deals with a new bank.
LONG READ
The Jones Act has committed supporters and it has fierce critics, writes Eric Priante Martin. For both, the 1920 law is known for this: reserving domestic trades to ships that are built at a domestic shipyard, crewed by Americans, controlled by a US company and flying the Stars and Stripes. But a new book by maritime lawyer Charlie Papavizas, who researched the 144 years of American history leading up to the law’s passage, concludes that Senator Wesley Jones probably would be “chagrined” to learn what the act that bears his name is known for today. Read the full story here.
