As from 1 August 2021, Norway-based ship supply specialist Wilhelmsen has taken over sales, logistics and consulting for Klüber Lubrication’s maritime portfolio. Initially within European countries and Southeast Asia, followed by the rest of the world from October onwards.

Kjell Andre Engen, Executive Vice President Marine Products, Wilhelmsen said, “This exclusive partnership pairs Klüber Lubrication’s market-leading marine lubricants with our unrivalled sales, customer service and supply network. Stronger together, customers old and new will quickly recognise the clear financial and operational value of our partnership”.

Complementing Wilhelmsen’s existing marine products portfolio, Klüber Lubrication’s premium specialty lubricants, including EALs are designed for a variety of vessel and port applications. And are claimed to allow longer intervals between maintenance and help increase the lifespan of ship components.

Along with the clear financial and environmental incentives for choosing Klüber Lubrication, customers old and new will now benefit from Wilhelmsen’s in-depth maritime expertise, established global distribution network and dedicated account manager set-up. In addition, access to the wider Wilhelmsen marine products portfolio offers obvious added value for forward-thinking owners, operators and managers looking to optimize their vessel operations.  In parallel to the Wilhelmsen partnership, Klüber Lubrication will also continue to drive innovation working directly with original equipment manufacturers.

Christoph Köhler, Head of Global Business Team Marine at Klüber Lubrication said, “In 2018, Klüber Lubrication and Wilhelmsen signed a cooperation. Following intensive preparatory work, we are now combining our respective strengths. The aim is that operators of ships, shipyards and dry docks can purchase innovative, high-performance specialty lubricants from a single point of contact all over the world. Promptly, reliably and with competent consulting provided”.

Wilhelmsen’s Marine Products team have undergone in-depth training on Klüber Lubrication’s products and their applications.

After more volatility in the first half of 2021, UK-based shipbroker Simpson Spence Young (SSY) analyses the last six months and highlights areas of particular interest in its mid-year outlook. The report looks at various drivers of the shipping markets, including the on-going impact of evolving emissions regulations.

Contributions come from a range of senior research and broking experts and cover dry bulk, tanker, chemicals, and gas freight markets; shipping investments, CO2 emissions, green financing, freight derivatives, metals and energy derivatives. Together, they give a taste of what to look out for in the second half of 2021.

SSY Chairman Mark Richardson said, “The aim of this report is to offer a concise update on some of our key markets, looking at how the year has developed and what we might expect for the second half of 2021. The first six months of 2021 have been very much focussed on the three Cs: China, Covid and Carbon. The first is still the dominant force in shipping, the second continues to have an impact across the globe, and the third is fast becoming one of the key priorities in sustainable shipping. SSY will continue to watch the market closely and ensure we can provide the most up to date insights to our clients, underpinning our views with the latest research and data.”

Highlights of the report include:

• Dry Bulk – “Despite crude steel production growth in January-June of almost 12% in China alongside a comparably robust 14% in the rest of the world, many benchmark steel prices have still managed to soar to record heights.” [P8]
• Tankers – “China is a major driver of crude tanker demand, but its imports declined through 2Q21 as it reduced spot crude purchasing and utilized domestic stocks that were rapidly built in 2020 when oil prices were low.” [P12]
• Chemicals – “With copper prices reaching 10-year highs, sulphuric acid became a very desirable commodity, being used in the production of copper. Asia is also one of the major acid exporting regions. During this period, demand soared, and freight rates almost doubled.” [P18]
• LNG – “The first half of 2021 has been the strongest first half of any LNG shipping year since 2014, with an average price for TFDE vessels of $68,000 / day. Most owners would consider this to be at or above breakeven levels, which, for the traditionally poor half of the year, is very encouraging indeed.” [P34]
• Dry FFAs – “The FFA market has responded to price volatility with increasing volume as existing traders react to price shifts and new participants come to the market to find a solution to increased exposure to risk. This was driven by demand growth in tonnage from Handysize to Panamax as imports into China boomed after their economy accelerated away from lockdown in Q1 and Q2.” [P24]
• Green Financing – “We note that capital is increasingly reluctant to finance unproven technologies, even if classified as green. Retrofit financing of open loop scrubbers was deemed green financing just over a year ago, but views have changed drastically since then.” [P41]
• Decarbonisation – SSY EEXI/EEDI estimates suggest that less than 25% of Bulkers and Tankers will attain compliance leaving most of the fleet facing either EPLs or another form of CO2 abatement. All these vessels will need to be assessed by class societies, creating a substantial logistical challenge.” [P46]

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SSY’s mid-year outlook report highlights growth and three Cs impact

Ruscon, the parent company of Dutch-based SmartContainer, has introduced an innovative separation material for transporting steel plates manufactured from recycled plastic bottles.

The separation sections, a polymer composite material cast in a disc or cylinder shape, have been developed as plate separation for use during storage and transport. The polymer composite materials are now used on ships from St. Petersburg to Ghent. These reusable separating parts on the cargo from steel plates will be collected after discharge to be returned. A deposit is charged on the parts as an incentive to ensure they are recycled.

Ruscon is developing a new transport system to allow the use of these reusable separation agents. Under the scheme, Ruscon takes care of the full customs clearance for the loading and unloading ports and the re-import for the separators to Russia. In this way, the customer receives a complete use cycle of the product,

The parts are light and easy to handle when compared to the wooden separation and dunnage products commonly used. The ease of use also allows for improvement to the speed of handling when loading and unloading the steel plates.

Since the spring of this year, a test period has started on the St. Petersburg – Ghent – St. Petersburg route. During this period, both traditional materials and the polymeric separators were used for cargo securing. A total of five test shipments were carried out and finally, on June 18, a ship was on its way from St. Petersburg with a cargo completely separated by the polymer components.

A number of large steel producers have shown interest in using the new separating materials. Therefore, in addition to the port of St. Petersburg, a shipment will soon be prepared using these innovative separation technologies from Novorossiysk.

Using conventional methods of cargo separation, approximately 20m3 of wood is normally used for a cargo of 5,000 tonnes of metal. For the same cargo about 50 thousand plastic bottles are needed for the production of the composite components. The separation parts can be reused several times and are themselves recyclable. The longer life cycle of the composite material means it has the potential to replace 13,000m3 of timber products.

Tsuneishi Shipbuilding has released the details of the new model TESS66 AEROLINE on its website. This eco-ship realises the largest class 66,200dwt Ultramax category with Panamax breadth. It features the company’s AEROLINE technology that reduces wind resistance, and also complies with EEDI Phase 3 regulations.

Spurred by an increase of cargo volume, ships in the shipping industry are increasing in size in pursuit of transportation efficiency per voyage. With enhanced demand in recent years to address global warming, the growth in size is accelerating from the perspective of reducing CO2 emissions per transportation unit as well.

TESS66 AEROLINE, the newest model in the company’s long-selling TESS series, achieves the largest class deadweight capacity of the Ultramax bulk carrier category to maximise transportation efficiency. Furthermore, its outstanding versatility ensures that customer convenience is not compromised as it maintains the Panamax breadth along with industry-standard depth.

With the features of fuel-efficiency and environmental performance, such as Tsuneishi Shipbuilding’s proprietary AEROLINE technology that reduces wind resistance by approximately 20%, the ship complies with the CO2 emission regulations, EEDIPhase 3. The ship model has been refined for excellent fuel efficiency under all conditions, from shallow to full load draught.

Kazutaka Seki, Manager of Ship Planning Dept., Design Div. said, “We hope this ship model will be a long-lasting favourite for its loading performance, fuel efficiency, environmental performances, and versatility that provide high added value to customers. We will continue to create globally-advanced products and provide ships that combine transportation efficiency with a reduced environmental burden.”

Principal particulars about TESS66 AEROLINE:

• Length overall: 200m
• Breadth: 32.25m
• Depth: 19.15m
• DWT: 66,200
• Cargo Capacity: 81,500㎥
• Draught: 13.8m
• Gross Tonnage: 36,900

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Tsuneishi unveils new Ultramax design

Reefer container freight rates have risen sharply through 2021, but in contrast to dry cargo rates, are forecast to rise further in 2022, driven by catch up on North-South routes, according to Drewry’s recently published Reefer Shipping Annual Review and Forecast 2021/22 report.

Drewry’s Global Reefer Container Freight Rate Index, a weighted average of rates across the top 15 reefer intensive deepsea trade routes, rose 32% over the year to 2Q21 and by the end of 3Q21 these gains are expected to reach as much as 50%. But these advances are dwarfed by the recent surge in dry container freight rates which have seen average container carrier unit revenues more than double over the same period.

The resurgence in reefer freight rates has not been uniform across all trades. Pricing recovery has been particularly strong on the main East-West routes, where vessel capacity conditions have been noticeably tight. But North-South trades have generally seen less price inflation, particularly on export routes from WCSA, Central America and Southern Africa.

“In contrast to dry container freight rates which are expected to decline in 2022 as trade conditions normalise, reefer container freight rates are forecast to continue rising as price inflation feeds into North-South routes when long term contract rates are renewed,” said Drewry’s head of reefer shipping research Philip Gray. “Most reefer cargo on these trades moves on long term contracts.”

The key driver of reefer freight rate inflation has been capacity related, as perishables shippers have competed with higher paying dry freight BCOs for scarce containership slots, despite ample reefer plug capacity provision. Meanwhile, continued disruption across container supply chains has led to acute shortages of reefer container equipment, already challenged by the particularly imbalanced nature of reefer trades.

“We believe that these conditions are short term and will self-correct as trade normalises from mid-2022,” added Gray. “However, we expect reefer container equipment availability to remain an issue for certain trades during their peak seasons, as the global fleet is not expected to keep pace with rising cargo demand, despite record output of newbuild containers.”

These conditions have provided short term reprieve to specialised reefer vessels, as some BCOs have returned to the mode seeking relief from congested container supply chains. But despite these developments Drewry estimates that the specialised reefer vessel’s share of the perishables trade fell to 12% in 2020 and is expected to decline further into single figures over the next few years.

Hence, despite a 0.4% decline in global seaborne perishables trade in 2020 to 132 million tonnes, containership reefer liftings advanced 0.3% to 5.4 million teu. Further modal share gains and buoyant cargo demand will see containerised reefer traffic expand at a faster pace than dry cargo trade from 2022.

The contraction in overall seaborne perishables trade in 2020 was much milder than for dry cargo, demonstrating the stronger resilience of reefer trades to economic shock. The trade was particularly impacted by a shuttered hospitality sector which reduced demand for deciduous fruit, fresh vegetables and frozen potatoes, while Covid-19 containment measures cut crop production and fish catches. Meanwhile, an outbreak of fusarium TR4 disease in the Philippines weakened growth in banana trades. But cargo demand was supported by a booming pork trade, owing to African Swine Fever driven imports into China.

Seaborne reefer traffic picked up through 1H21, expanding 4.8% YoY, led by meat, citrus and exotics trades but is not expected to expand at the same pace as dry cargo through the remainder of the year as it is not recovering from as deep a contraction in 2020.

“A combination of buoyant cargo growth and tight capacity conditions will continue to support reefer container freight rates and specialised vessel charter earnings,” concluded Gray. “However, charter rates for larger reefer vessels that have been in particularly high demand of late are expected to wane as capacity conditions ease.”