A new player from China has made its debut on the product tanker market, the number of scrapping yards in the EU could be reduced after Brexit, and Maersk's new offshore investment declared its ambitions. Here are the week's top stories from ShippingWatch.
This week, several media reported that the Chinese Group Baota Petrochemical Group had allegedly entered several contracts with leading product tanker carriers such as Maersk Tankers, Hafnia Tankers, Scorpio Tankers and Gulf Energy Maritime to charter a share of their vessels. Maersk Tankers confirmed negotiations of vessel sales to ShippingWatch.
"We can confirm that we are in dialogue with various potential partners concerning a possible sale of a number of vessels, which includes a subsequent commercial management agreement with Maersk Tankers A/S. As no final agreement is in place we are unable to comment further at this point in time," said the carrier.
The number of scrapping yards in the EU could be reduced, while several other consequences could also strike shipping, if the UK becomes a third party country without an EU deal after its exit from the union.
New Maersk investment will take a tenth of market worth billions of US dollars
In an interview with ShippingWatch, CEO Lars Banke from Maersk Decom, said that the new company is aiming to go after a tenth of the market for decommissioning retired drilling platforms, which is allegedly worth billions of US dollars.
"We expect to build a market share of 10 percent over the next two to five years," said the CEO to ShippingWatch.
On July 1, the use and transportation of heavy bunker oil by ships in the Arctic will be banned. A climate organization now accuses the ban of being full of loopholes.
