IMDO Shipping Review: Africa Upsizes, Misplaced Optimism Overcapacity, New Marine Wood Fuel and Much More

4th June 2014

#Ports&Shipping –The latest IMDO Weekly Shipping Market Review includes the following stories as detailed below.

Container Market: African upsizing -The upsizing of vessels on African trades continues strongly accordingly to Clarksons Research Limited supported by robust growth in trade volumes and despite a variety of infrastructure challenges. A number of services to West Africa have been reorganised and now Panamaxes and 4,500 TEU 'Wafmaxes' (the largest geared containerships in world) are regularly being deployed instead of 2-3,000 TEU geared vessels.

World Fleet: Misplaced optimism regarding overcapacity -The growing optimism regarding the perceived improvement of the supply-demand balance is overplayed according to a report by Danish Ship Finance (DSF). DSF contend that whilst several major shipping segments, particularly the crude and dry-bulk sectors, have benefitted from an improved supply-demand balance, overcapacity remains a systemic issue not merely, "temporary spikes, driven by regional imbalances and inventory changes". Seaborne trade volumes increased 2.8% in 2013, against world fleet growth of 3.7%, resulting in fleet utilisation of just 83% according to DSF.

Marine Fuels: New fuel development from wood residues - Researchers at Britain's Aston University claim to be developing a marine fuel using waste from the Norwegian forestry industry, with the potential for the large-scale production of a "completely sustainable" biofuel by 2020. The ReShip Project aims to process low-quality wood waste and chips into crude pyrolysis oil, by heating the material without exposing it to oxygen.

For more on each of the above and other stories click the PDF downloadable IMDO Weekly Markets Review (Week 22). In addition to coverage on Afloat.ie's dedicated Ports & Shipping News section.

Published in Ports & Shipping

Tagged under

About The Author

Jehan Ashmore

Email The Author

Jehan Ashmore is a marine correspondent, researcher and photographer, specialising in Irish ports, shipping and the ferry sector serving the UK and directly to mainland Europe. Jehan also occasionally writes a column, 'Maritime' Dalkey for the (Dalkey Community Council Newsletter) in addition to contributing to UK marine periodicals.

We've got a favour to ask

More people are reading Afloat.ie than ever thanks to the power of the internet but we're in stormy seas because advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. Unlike many news sites, we haven’t put up a paywall because we want to keep our marine journalism open.

Afloat.ie is Ireland's only full–time marine journalism team and it takes time, money and hard work to produce our content.

So you can see why we need to ask for your help.

If everyone chipped in, we can enhance our coverage and our future would be more secure. You can help us through a small donation. Thank you.