Hapag-Lloyd Ships Ltd.

The total orderbook for dry bulk, container and tanker ships has reached its lowest point in 17 years as COVID-19 has massively slowed contracting (-50%) while deliveries of new vessels have proved more resilient (-2%).The orderbooks for bulk carriers and containerships in particular have fallen sharply. At 63.4 million deadweight tons (DWT), the dry bulk orderbook is at its lowest level since April 2004 and 34.7% smaller than 12 months ago. Similarly, the orderbook for containerships has fallen 10.3% in the past 12 months to its lowest level since September 2003.The fall has left the orderbook to fleet ratio at its lowest level in many years at just 7.7%.

Cargoes have come off ships at sea it seems like forever. Some years ago a ship suffered a casualty transiting the English Channel in a storm. Much of its cargo of lumber and other floating items washed ashore on the southwest English coast. Before the authorities could arrive, enterprising local residents gathered it up.Nowadays, the majority of non-bulk cargo is carried in containers. Container ships have gotten larger and are capable of carrying thousands and thousands of containers. The ships have greater length, greater breadth, and greater draft. They also have greater air draft.

Handling of steel boxes throughout the shipping, ports and logistics supply chain has historically grown exponentially, putting strains on a range of operational procedures and the physical hardware employed to handle the steel boxes, particularly onboard ships. A recent webinar organized by the Thomas Miller managed insurance mutuals, container freight specialist TT Club and protection & indemnity insurer, UK P&I Club, revealed the diverse range of factors important to safe container ship operations and the security of the container stacks they carry.

Belgian tanker operator Euronav reported record-high second-quarter earnings on Thursday but warned that floating storage demand had eased sooner than it expected.The company, which operates shipping and storage of crude oil, benefited from soaring demand for oil storage at sea as buyers struggled to find storage space on land for surplus crude during a global economic slump caused by the coronavirus pandemic.“Tanker markets continued to deliver strong earnings throughout Q2 and into the early part of the third quarter", Chief Executive Hugo De Stoop said in a statement, but noted floating storage requirements declined sooner than it expected.

The United States sent a shipment of crude to Saudi Arabia in June, data from the U.S. Census Bureau showed on Wednesday, in what appears to be the first such delivery since the U.S. ban on crude exports ended in 2015.The United States shipped about 550,000 barrels, or 18,300 barrels per day (bpd), of crude to Saudi Arabia in June, U.S. Census data shows. The U.S. Energy Information Administration has no recorded instances of a U.S. crude shipment to Saudi Arabia.U.S. Census data shows a miniscule 1,000-barrel shipment to Saudi Arabia in 2002. That was during the four-decade ban on exports.