According to data from S&P Global Commodity Insights, average natural gas deliveries to US LNG export terminals increased 1.4 Bcf/d from last week to 14.1 Bcf/d.
Natural gas deliveries to terminals in South Louisiana increased by 5 percent (0.4 Bcf/d) to 8.2 Bcf/d, and natural gas deliveries to terminals in South Texas rose by 28.2 percent (1 Bcf/d) to 4.7 Bcf/d.
The agency said that natural gas deliveries to terminals outside the Gulf Coast were essentially unchanged at 1.2 Bcf/d.
During the week under review, Cheniere’s Sabine Pass plant shipped nine LNG cargoes, and the company’s Corpus Christi facility sent four shipments.
The Freeport LNG terminal shipped five cargoes, while Sempra Infrastructure’s Cameron LNG terminal shipped four cargoes and Venture Global LNG’s Calcasieu Pass facility sent three cargoes during the week under review.
Also, the Cove Point facility shipped one cargo, and the Elba Island terminal did not ship cargoes between November 7 and November 13.
According to the agency, the Henry Hub spot price increased 30 cents from $1.80 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) last Wednesday to $2.10/MMBtu this Wednesday.
The price of the December 2024 NYMEX contract increased 24 cents, from $2.747/MMBtu last Wednesday to $2.983/MMBtu this Wednesday.
The price of the 12-month strip averaging December 2024 through November 2025 futures contracts climbed 14 cents to $3.100/MMBtu.
The agency said that international natural gas futures increased this report week.
Bloomberg Finance reported that average front-month futures prices for LNG cargoes in East Asia increased 2 cents to a weekly average of $13.54/MMBtu.
Natural gas futures for delivery at the Title Transfer Facility (TTF) in the Netherlands increased 69 cents to a weekly average of $13.48/MMBtu.
The agency said that in the same week last year (week ending November 15, 2023), the prices were $17.17/MMBtu in East Asia and $14.97/MMBtu at TTF.
At COP29, the UK committed £79 million to help developing countries adopt clean energy, pushing the global transition away from fossil fuels.
This support package includes funding for projects to develop renewable energy, improve energy storage, and reduce industrial emissions in nations already hit hardest by climate change, including African and small island countries.
The package includes £45 million for the World Bank’s Energy Sector Management Assistance Programme.
Additionally, Innovate UK will receive £15 million to drive clean energy tech development, while £14 million will go to the UN’s Industrial Development Organisation to support zero emission industrial projects.
Another £5 million will help developing countries reduce methane emissions, reinforcing a global pledge to tackle this potent greenhouse gas.
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said: “Climate change does not respect borders, and the UK has seen a year of record-breaking warmth. That’s why we are determined to lead from the front and drive global change, to protect future generations at home and abroad.”
Shesh, or Venkatraman Sheshashayee, is a retired CEO living in Singapore whose first novel, Sixty is the New Assassin, will be made available to buy on Amazon come Monday.
Armed with degrees in marine engineering and management, he first sailed across half the known world and then built businesses across most of the rest of it. In his career spanning 38 years, he built companies from scratch, transformed them and turned them around. Roles included being the CEO of both Miclyn Express Offshore, and Jaya Holdings Limited as well as a stint as managing director of Greatship Global.
Shesh had been writing articles – including on this site – and short stories for a number of years.
In October 2022, he asked his wife, Radhika, what she would like for Christmas.
“A full length novel,” she replied, “with a plot that I haven’t come across before.”
Shesh got to work. As a regular runner, one of his stranger pastimes while pounding his way across Singapore is to look for cameras, and the absence of them.
“Don’t ask why,” he tells Maritime CEO. “As I did, I realised that while some areas were well covered, some were bereft. Such areas were conducive for crime, I thought while panting.”
One evening, Shesh met up with a few friends for drinks.
“Most of us were retired or were on the verge of retirement,” Shesh recounts. “What are we supposed to do for the next 20 years?” asked one. Ideas and suggested flowed fast and furious. One slightly more inebriated friend said, “We should form a vigilante group, and go after corrupt politicians.” Another agreed. “We have the knowledge, networks and money to do so,” he said.
These and other pieces gradually slotted together, and Shesh decided that he would try his hand at a full length novel about a retired CEO, who seeks relevance and meaning, and decides to use his hard-won skills to take the concept of killer instinct to a very different level. While Sixty is the New Assassin officially goes on sale on Monday, Shesh has been busy – there are already another seven books done in the series tracking the evolution of the protagonist from a law-abiding, house-broken CEO to a lethal assassin who begins to rationalise every killing as an extension of his purpose.
Quizzed as to how much of him is in the lead character, Shesh concedes there is quite a bit, minus the homicidal impulses.
“The protagonist, Ishmael Dollah, is compulsive, anal, and goal-focused. He plans and prepares for every contingency. He decides what he has to do and then justifies why he is doing it,” he says.
Norwegian car carrier player Höegh Autoliners has renewed several long-term contracts with a major international car producer for transport of cars in various trade lanes.
The company said the duration of the contracts is three years and that it had already started to ship cargo under some of the contracts.
“The customer aligns with our decarbonization goals, and we have strategic discussions with them on collaborating to reduce the carbon footprint associated with transporting their products,” stated Andreas Enger, CEO of Höegh Autoliners.
Höegh Autoliners now has two Aurora-class vessels in operation with ten more set to enter the fleet in the next two to three which will improve the company’s environmental goals.
In recent company news, Italian shipping magnate Emanuele Grimaldi increased his shareholding in the Höegh Autoliners in September.
Grimaldi owns about 10% of the Oslo-based company making him the second-largest shareholder in the operator of some 40 vessels, after the Höegh family. The head of the Grimaldi Group first bought into Höegh Autoliners in late April this year, taking a 5.12% stake.
The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has sanctioned 26 companies, individuals, and vessels associated with the Al-Qatirji Company, a Syrian conglomerate responsible OFAC maintains for generating hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF) and the Houthis through the sale of Iranian oil to Syria and China.
“Iran is increasingly relying on key business partners like the Al-Qatirji Company to fund its destabilising activities and web of terrorist proxies across the region,” said acting under secretary of the treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence Bradley Smith. “Treasury will continue to take all available measures to restrict the Iranian regime’s ability to profit from the illicit schemes that enable its dangerous regional agenda.”
Singapore has a new shipmanager. Ocean Network Express (ONE) and Seaspan have formed ONESEA Solutions to manage owned and chartered-in ONE ships.
Raman Handa, a long-term Seaspan shipmanager, has been appointed the CEO of ONESEA. He commented today, “ONESEA marks the evolution of the partnership between ONE and Seaspan, as it seeks to harness the unique strengths of each company in order to create a high-performing enterprise in the shipmanagement space.”
Japanese-controlled liner ONE, which is headquartered in Singapore, became one of the main shareholders in Seaspan, the world’s largest container tonnage provider, two years ago.
Splash has launched a special publication to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Fleet Management, the world’s second-largest shipmanager.
The new magazine comes at a pivotal time for the Hong Kong manager as it prepares for a change of leadership with Kishore Rajvanshy, the founding managing director of the company, handing over the day-to-day reins to Rajalingam Subramaniam, the former boss of MISC, Malaysia’s flagship shipping line.
The magazine reflects on how the business of shipmanagement has changed since 1994, as well as how it is likely to transform in the coming years. As well as a standalone publication, it also features in the recently published 80-page Hong Kong specialSplash has prepared for Hong Kong Maritime Week.
Splash has a long history of assisting companies to get their thought leadership across to the shipping industry, producing magazines in association with sat comms leader Inmarsat, cargo handling specialist Macgregor, lubes giant Cockett Marine Oil, and ship maintenance expert Rustibus as well as a host of other maritime brands over the years. For marketing personnel interesting in seeing how they can get their brand across to the Splash readership via dedicated, thought-provoking, topical magazines, get in touch with Victor Halder on +852 6030 0350 or email [email protected].
To access the full Fleet Management magazine, click here.
To access the full Hong Kong Market Report 2024, click here.
A new 77-page report from the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) has suggested the UN needs a whole new body to address growing maritime security concerns around the world.
The report suggests the UN lacks an institutional structure to address maritime security comprehensively.
“Neither the General Assembly’s ocean affairs and law of the sea process, the selected focus of the Security Council, nor the assemblies of the United Nations agencies proactive in maritime security, such as the [International Maritime Organization] or [the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime], have as sufficient mandate or legitimacy on their own to deal with maritime security challenges comprehensively and to bring strategic coherence to the United Nations efforts,” the report suggests.
The UNIDIR is a voluntarily funded, autonomous institute within the UN.
“An institutional mechanism will firstly have to address the task of more effectively mainstreaming maritime security across the United Nations system,” the report advises.
“The acceleration of maritime activities and humanity’s growing dependency on the seas calls for more structured and sustained efforts to address maritime security within the United Nations system,” Dr Christian Bueger, lead author of the report, told Splash. “This report provides a roadmap for developing those vital new approaches.”
China’s grip on global shipbuilding is growing ever stronger, building a sizeable gap from second place, South Korea, with some warning the dominance the People’s Republic exerts in this construction sector could become an early target from the incoming Donald Trump administration in the US.
At the start of the century, China accounted for less than 10% of global ship completions. Within 10 years, however, it had surpassed both Japan and South Korea to become the world’s top shipbuilding nation. Over the past 18 months it has noticeably stretched its lead at the top with many yards announcing plans to increase their capacity, while some mothballed shipyards have been reopened, notably Rongsheng, which by itself adds a full percent in terms of global shipbuilding capacity.
Data from Xclusiv Shipbrokers shows that Chinese shipyards experienced a 17% year-on-year surge in new orders across the four main sectors – bulk carriers, tankers, gas, and containers – in the first 10 months of this year. This increased their market share to 74%, up from 63% in 2023’s orders.
Chinese shipyards dominate the container and bulk carrier sectors in 2024, securing 90% of total container orders and 81% of total bulk carrier orders, according to data from the Greek broker. The tanker sector follows with 72% of orders placed in Chinese shipyards. In the gas sector, China maintains a significant 44% share.
Data from Danish Ship Finance shows that China now controls 42% – or 24m cgt – of the global yard capacity, distributed between 140 yards, and has secured 57% of vessel capacity currently on order with South Korea clearly losing ground to China.
Investors in Chinese orderbooks will be wary of falling foul of Trump’s hardline approach
“China’s dominance in shipbuilding is set to continue,” states a recent report from Xclusiv. In 2026, for instance, 70% of bulk carrier vessels added to the fleet will be built in China. China’s market share in the tanker sector is also projected to increase to 67%
China’s stranglehold in the ship construction sector is expected to be discussed early on when the new Trump cabinet assembles in Washington DC in the new year.
South Korean shipyard stock rallied last week following Trump’s stated wish to strengthen relationships with South Korean shipyards. For several months, US shipbuilding unions have been pushing for punitive action to be taken against Chinese shipbuilders that they accuse of receiving unfair support from the Chinese state.
“Investors in Chinese orderbooks will be wary of falling foul of Trump’s hardline approach towards Chinese business,” analysts at broker Braemar advised recently.
The US Trade Representative (USTR) launched an investigation into China’s shipbuilding practices this April, with the outgoing Biden administration reacting to unions and bipartisan calls to clamp down on pricing policies for newbuilds constructed in the People’s Republic.
A Chinese Commerce Ministry spokesperson dismissed the shipbuilding probe when it was announced, telling reporters in Beijing: “It lacks factual basis and goes against economic common sense to blame China for America’s own industrial problems.”
Canada has also joined a growing chorus of shipyard nations taking aim at China.
Colin Cooke, president and CEO, Canadian Marine Industries and Shipbuilding Association (CMISA), delivered a hard-hitting message to Ottawa earlier this year demanding that the Justin Trudeau administration enact tariffs against Chinese-built ships, following on from similar calls in the US and Europe.
Canada recently imposed a 100% surtax on Chinese-made electric vehicles, something CMISA would like to see extended to Chinese-built ships, which Cooke claimed in a release presents an even greater “strategic and ethical threat”.
“China’s shipbuilding industry operates under the doctrine of Civil-Military Fusion whereby commercial ship exports are subsidized to strengthen the country’s military capabilities,” Cooke maintained.
CMISA is calling for the imposition of a 100% surtax on all Chinese-built ships imported into Canada and demand a clear prohibition on any government entity from acquiring or leasing Chinese-built vessels.
“It is imperative that the government takes these steps to protect Canadian industries, uphold national security, and ensure that our economic policies are consistent with our commitment to human rights and ethical business practices,” Cooke wrote.
European shipbuilders have also held a rallying call, determined to claw back business, urging politicians to come onboard.
SEA Europe, the association representing the European maritime technology industry, comprising shipyards and maritime equipment manufacturers, met with European members of parliament earlier this year in a call to action to European policymakers to formulate a comprehensive European maritime industrial strategy.
“Because of substantial price differentials of 30% to 40%, combined with advantageous financial incentives – especially offered by Chinese banks – European shipowners have increasingly opted for Asian shipbuilders,” a release from SEA Europe stated.
Writing on LinkedIn recently, Vincent Guerre, director for trade and competitiveness at SEA Europe, argued: “While access to cheaper vessels benefits shipowners, it also introduces the risk of excessive dependence. The consequences often remain unseen until a crisis occurs, which is becoming increasingly likely amid current geopolitical tensions.”
In related news, in July this year, the US, Canada and Finland agreed to work together to build more polar icebreakers.
The so-called ICE Pact – which stands for Icebreaker Collaboration Effort – is a potential sizeable bonus for many shipyards in North America and Scandinavia.
“The ICE Pact will reinforce the message to Russia and China that the United States and its allies intend to … doggedly pursue collaboration on industrial policy to increase our competitive edge in strategic industries like shipbuilding, to build a world-class polar icebreaking fleet at scale,” a senior US official told reporters at the time of the launch of the pact.
Shipyard politics were discussed at length at last month’s Maritime CEO Forum held at the Monaco Yacht Club.
“I think we’re going to get more and more regulation, more and more tariffs, more and more anti-trade positions and probably more and more national fleets carrying their own cargo, protected by their own navies,” said Graham Porter, chairman of Tiger Group Investments.
The United States remains Europe’s greatest ally regardless of who is in the White House, said Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský, adding that to face Russia, the EU should back newly elected US President Donald Trump’s China policy.
“We share common interests and values that endure,” Lipavský (independent) said at the opening of the Aspen Institute conference in Prague on Thursday (14 November).
The head of Czech diplomacy also stressed that Europe should see a change in the US administration as an opportunity to take more responsibility for its own security.
“It is clear that the United States can no longer police the world alone. If we want to ensure prosperity and security in the transatlantic area, both sides must contribute,” he added.
“We must continue proving that we do not shy away from challenges and that we have courage and determination,” the Czech minister said, commenting that Trump respects those willing to stand up and fight.
According to Lipavský, the US will increasingly focus on China and protecting the Taiwan Strait.
“Europe needs to focus on what is happening at its borders. If we expect a strong US commitment to our protection against Russian imperialism, we must be prepared to support them, which means also facing the challenge posed by China,” he explained.
Lipavský noted that global instability is on the rise, with recent years bringing further shifts on the geopolitical stage. China’s influence and its ambitions to reshape the international order are growing, he added.
“The Kremlin seeks to disrupt transatlantic ties by aligning with Iran and North Korea. North Korean soldiers are already in Europe, and the axis of evil has thereby been fully revived,” said Lipavský.
