Danish Ship Finance (DSF) estimates that newbuilding prices from yards in Asia may actually be plunge to levels corresponding to those of more than a decade ago once many yards run out of orders this year and the next.

The major container carriers will derive marked savings on fuel. The expansion of the Panama Canal could also lead to new integration of services between shipowners, estimates SeaIntel in an analysis.

Even though the international banks still view the shipping industry’s future as bleak, they declare themselves ready to support and invest in the industry. ShippingWatch interviewed several of the international banks at Sea Asia 2013.

Maersk Line will return to the Panama Canal, partly due to demands from major American customers, says the Canal administration of the important route in an exclusive interview with ShippingWatch.

2012 did provide a surplus for the major container carriers, but it was a surplus of just 280 million USD for all of them. According to Drewry, the accumulated deficit is at 700 million USD between 2008 and 2012.

It has become more and more expensive for shipowners to crack down on piracy even though the number of attacks has declined in recent years. In 2012 alone, shipowners spent 6 billion USD on fighting piracy, shows a new report.

After heading the merger of Herning Shipping A/S and Nordic Tankers, Mads Meldgaard is resigning from his posts as CEO and Senior Vice President respectively. Meldgaard will be moving back to Canada.

According to the analyst firm Fearnley, owners of raw oil tankers have been pressed so far down in their rental contracts that market participants are asking themselves how long it will be before certain companies have to throw in the towel.

New investors in the shipping industry as well as too-high prices on second-hand ships are to a great extent responsible for the overcapacity in the market. This was the conclusion reached by a unanimous panel on Tuesday at the Sea Asia conference in Singapore. “New ships are cheaper than second-hand,” said Mikael Skov from Tankers Inc.

The scrapping proposal needs to become part of the agenda as soon as possible in order to succeed with implementation before 2015, during which the rules for ballast water take effect, which will cause more scrapping, says EU-parliamentarian Carl Schlyter.

Shipping companies are building new and larger ships which the growth does not warrant. “Our order might have been different if we had known what the market would look like today,” says Thomas Riber Knudsen, CEO of Maersk Line, Asia Pacific Region to ShippingWatch at Sea Asia 2013 in Singapore.

The prospect of stable earnings within the container industry still seems far off for the much-tried shipowners. Only seven out of 21 companies were able to produce positive operational results last year. 2013 looks bleak, estimates Alphaliner.

Three giant oil fields in the Barents Sea and one in the northern part of the Norwegian Sea will be subject to huge investments from a number of Norwegian oil companies led by Statoil. It could lead to thousands of new jobs.

Newbuilding orders have been higher than what could be expected in the current freight market in Q1, according to data from RS Platou Economic Research. Companies are placing 'more speculative orders'.

DFDS has seen a significant dip in its business with Russia. Several Russian customers have trouble making payments, as their capital is tied up in the troubled country, Cyprus. It is the first example of the crisis on the small island state affecting Danish business.

The wealthy Singapore-based fund Temasek Holdings has set aside USD 800 million to invest in LNG for extraction, storage, handling and transportation of the natural gas.

Major container companies deny reports that a rate war on the big routes is on-going, although the actual development clearly shows that it is. And the development is bound to pick up speed in 2013, according to analysis firm SeaIntel.