Maritime Safety News Archives - Page 67 of 260 - SHIP IP LTD

The world’s largest cash buyer of ships for recycling will be at Posidonia 2022 and on the lookout for like-minded shipowners to deliver ESG friendly ship recycling.

A fundamental shift in attitudes towards ship recycling is forcing a change in the way owners deal with scrapping.

Operating shipowners, private equity and tonnage providers feeling the heat from cargo clients, banks and investors are now being urged to engage with the entire ship recycling process – from the sale contract to the last steel plate lifted ashore.

GMS’s Head of Green Recycling, Dr Anand Hiremath, says that evidence of the shift is overwhelming.

“Look at the data. Last year, for the first time, every ship GMS sold to India went to a yard holding Hong Kong Convention Statement of Compliance.”

Pressure from prominent shipping banks that work closely with ship cash buyers and other stakeholders such as DNB and Nordea to improve standards is taking the form of solid recommendations to their owner clients to get closely involved in ship recycling. Engagement, they say, will minimize the impact on the environment and society that results from poor recycling practices.

Getting involved typically involves developing a company recycling policy, obtaining an Inventory of Hazardous Materials (IHM) for every ship in the existing fleet, using fewer hazmats used during construction, conducting due diligence of scrap yards, proper supervision, and documentation at the waterfront. Involvement can also extend to inserting responsible ship recycling clauses in sale contracts for ships approaching the end of their trading lives.

Changing commercial landscape

Senior Trader of top cash buyer of ships for recycling, GMS, Vagelis Chatzigiannis acknowledges that historically there has been a reluctance to engage with green recycling from some quarters. But he points to the ever-growing number of high-quality ship recycling yards in India combined with ESG pressure on owners as main drivers for the shift in both attitude and practices. “The landscape is changing for sure. Owners who were solely price-driven are considering the impact of the continuously changing ESG environment. Green deals, involving yard selection and auditing, supervision and documentation are now very much part of our daily trading activities,” he says.

Chatzigiannis says ship and offshore owners are now looking for turnkey green solutions. “We aren’t simply ship cash buyers; We actively walk clients through the ship recycling process hand to hand, and cover all aspects of their recycling needs from regulatory, commercial and operational aspects; not just delivery of the units, but including completion of the recycling process and the issuance of the recycling completion certificate.

He adds that owners now want to see evidence and hard facts about the benefits of opting for a green solution. “It is important to be able to quantify the benefits and savings to the environment by choosing ESG practices, which our SSORP can deliver.”

Singapore based GMS trader Jamie Dalzell believes owners are helping to force the pace of change. ‘We are seeing more requests for HKC compliant offers these days as owners seek to comply with growing ESG requirements. This is indeed encouraging and in turn, leads to an increase in the number of yards along with upgrades on existing HKC yards as they seek to satisfy this demand.’

No short cuts

The person in charge of SSORP, Dr Anand Hiremath holds a PhD in ship recycling and divides his time advising shipowner clients and recyclers on delivering a green solution.

He recognizes the challenges but is proud of his team’s achievements. “Our purpose is safer and greener recycling – up to now, 102 ships (including 25 offshore units) have been safely recycled under our supervision. The SSORP team has completed more projects than any other compliance monitoring company in the world.”

He says the services required by owners are all significant contributors to responsible recycling. “Typically, the work involves preparing the Inventory of Hazardous Materials (IHM), helping the yard develop a Ship Recycling Plan, evaluating the Ship Recycling Facility Plan, hazardous waste management, risk assessment, daily safety observation, effective implementation of ship recycling plan, estimation of carbon footprint, monitoring the recycling process and providing a weekly/monthly/ completion report as per HKC guidelines.”

Dr Hiremath says owners are looking for full transparency backed up by accurate data. “Under SSORP, we collect 281 data points during the compliance monitoring process. But it is not all about the number of data points – more the transparency and accuracy we bring, acting as shipowner’s eyes and ears at ground zero”.

Source: https://www.maritimelondon.com/news/gms-pioneers-esg-friendly-recycling-solutions

The research vessel Polarstern has departed on a seven-week-long voyage to the Arctic, where the onset of summer also marks the beginning of the annual sea-ice melting. 

Over the past 40 years, the summer sea-ice extent has decreased by 40 percent – making it one of the most visible impacts of climate change. In a process study to be conducted in the marginal ice zone, the team of researchers on board will investigate how heat fluxes and water layering in the ocean, as well as the characteristics of the ice, interact and influence melting. A further focus of the expedition will be on the warming produced by Atlantic Water circulation and its effects on marine glaciers in northeast Greenland.

From her home port in Bremerhaven, the Polarstern will set course for Fram Strait and the marginal ice zone north of Svalbard, where warm, nutrient-rich Atlantic Water flows into the Arctic Ocean. Closely monitoring energy and material flows in the marginal ice zone from the ship and from on ice floes is the goal of the team led by Prof Torsten Kanzow, expedition leader and a physical oceanographer at the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI).

Kanzow explains:

“We will make transects from the open water into the dense sea ice and back. Along the way, we will gather a variety of physical, chemical and biological measurements in the marginal ice zone, which is especially productive and therefore especially interesting. The team will also venture onto the ice to take a closer look at the thickness and characteristics of the sea ice and measure ocean currents and eddies away from the ship. We’ll also deploy so-called gliders in the ocean, buoys on the ice and moorings on the seafloor, all of which will record valuable data for the next several years. Lastly, we’ll extend our research radius with helicopter flights, during which we’ll observe, for instance, the melt ponds on the ice.”

The study will be supplemented with atmospheric research, in which the characteristics and flows of aerosols and greenhouse gases in the atmospheric boundary layer, as well as the distribution of water vapour and clouds, will be evaluated. A further project is intended to show how oceanographic fronts, eddies and the ice edge itself, as well as sea-ice characteristics (melt ponds and light transmission), influence carbon export. In order to quantify the latter, the experts will assess the nutrient supply in the sunlit zone, as well as the distribution of phytoplankton and zooplankton (including jellyfish) and primary and net community production. This fieldwork in the marginal ice zone will help us to understand the impacts of climate change in the Arctic.

Another key target region for the expedition is northeast Greenland, where the team will investigate the ocean’s influences on marine glaciers. The two glaciers there (79 N Glacier and Zachariae Isstrom) are both characterised by ocean-driven ice loss and accelerated ice flows, making them contributors to sea-level rise.

Kanzow, who’s been pursuing research in the region since 2016, says:

“We plan to install moorings in order to gauge the sensitivity of ocean-driven glacier melting to changing environmental conditions.”

Accompanying geodetic-glaciological studies will be conducted on Greenland. On the one hand, they will assess how the solid ground is rising on extremely small scales, because it is still rebounding from the past weight of ice masses that melted after the last glacial maximum. On the other, they will explore temporal variations in supraglacial lakes; their drainage out to sea can have considerable effects on glacier flow speeds and glacier melting.

For the AWI’s time series dating back to 1997, the expedition team will also deploy measuring devices at the FRAM Observatory between Greenland and Svalbard. And farther to the north in the Arctic Ocean, new instruments will be deployed in the Aurora Vent Field, where they will continually record the seismic activity and physical characteristics of the local heated-water discharges (hydrothermal vents) for the next year. In mid-August, the Polarstern is slated to return to Bremerhaven, from where, following a nearly two-week break, she will depart again, this time bound for the Antarctic.

Source: https://seawanderer.org/polarstern-expedition-to-the-arctic-ice

When demand to transport cargo weakens, short-term rental rates decline for the ships that carry that cargo. When freight demand rises, lease rates rise. You can see this now in spot rates for supertankers moving crude oil from the Middle East and large bulkers moving iron ore to China (weak demand, low rates) and for product carriers moving diesel, gasoline and jet fuel (high demand, high spot rates).

You can’t see it in container shipping, though. At least, not yet.

The container freight market is awash in negative sentiment on import demand, yet short-term ship charter rates remain stratospherically high.

“The charter market is undeterred by the weaker sentiment across the global shipping industry and remains extremely strong,” affirmed data provider Alphaliner on Wednesday. “Charter rates continue to evolve at historic highs with, remarkably, some further gains achieved by certain sizes.” There is “a continued bonanza.”

Operators still hungry for ships

Alphaliner reported that BAL Container Line has just chartered the Northern Prelude (built in 2009, capacity: 4,600 twenty-foot equivalent units) for $160,000 per day for 40-60 days.

It also reported that Sinotrans has chartered the 2021-built, 2,743-TEU X-Press Mekong for $149,000 per day for 40-45 days. “This rate … is not far off the historical high of $175,000 per day [for that size category] obtained in January,” said Alphaliner.

Even the very smallest ships — in the sub-1,000-TEU category — “continue to generate staggering rates.” Ships with capacities of just 700-800 TEUs are being employed at $20,000-$30,000 per day. Most recently, SITC chartered the 2008-built, 724-TEU Atlantic Pioneer for $30,000 per day.

Why the disparity between the charter market and the freight market? Freight rates are off their peaks and still softening, yet they’re still extremely high — high enough for ship operators to generate profits even if they’re still paying sky-high charter rates.

According to Alphaliner, “The continued fall in spot rates on most major routes is obviously a concern, but they remain at historical highs for now, giving both NOOs [non-operating owners, the companies that lease ships to liners] and charterers confidence in short-term market prospects.”

For NOOs, “the short term remains bright.”

And despite medium- and long-term concerns on rising capacity given new ship deliveries in 2023-25, there are still multiyear charters being inked at very strong rates. Alphaliner reported that ocean carrier Zim (NYSE: ZIM) just chartered the 4,520-TEU, 2011-built sister ships Seaspan Chiba and Seaspan Kobe for five years at $43,000 per day.

No collapse in charter rates yet

Data from companies that track charter rates does not indicate a market collapse. On the contrary, it shows a market that’s holding at or near the high point.

Brokerage Harper Peterson & Co. publishes the Harpex index. The index (covering 700- to 8,500-TEU ships) peaked in mid-March, dipped slightly through April, held steady in May and began rising again this month. The Harpex is currently down 3% versus its peak, but still more than double its level at this time last year.

Alphaliner tracks average rates over time, estimating rates for 12-month charter durations. (These figures are assessments only, given the lack of available ships for rent and the rarity of 12-month deals.)

For 8,500-TEU container vessels, it currently assesses rates at $150,000 per day, just below the $155,000-per-day record hit in late March to mid-April. The current rate is up 114% year on year (y/y).

For 5,600-TEU ships, it puts rates at $130,000 per day. That’s the all-time high and up 110% y/y. It assesses 4,000-TEU ships at $110,000 per day, an all-time high and up 93% y/y, and 2,500-TEU ships at $76,000 per day, just below the peak of $80,000 per day in February to early May and up 105% y/y.

Alphaliner puts one-year rates for 1,700-TEU ships at $58,000 per day, near the all-time high of $62,500 per day in late February to mid-May and up 71% y/y. It estimates charter rates for 1,000-TEU container ships at $32,000 per day, down materially — 36% — from a brief high of $50,000 per day reached in early March, albeit still up 68% y/y.

Source: https://www.freightwaves.com/news/container-ships-still-renting-for-160000-a-day-despite-import-fears