Editor’s selection: Emissions trading pleas ignored, booming LNG rates and Tiptree’s ‘magic pipe’ probe

As we move closer to an EU Emissions Trading scheme for shipping, pleas by shipowners for charterers to adopt Bimco’s emissions trading clause which aims to divide the burden between the parties are falling on deaf ears, it seems. One broker told TradeWinds that charterers are pushing back on clauses to cover the future cost of emissions, with the implementation of the EU ETS ― which calls for owners to pay a substantial levy ― potentially coming into force at the turn of the year.

A limited supply of tonnage is pushing LNG carrier rates ever higher, with winter rates predicted to hit $500,000 a day. The “crazy” numbers are being attributed to the “incredibly limited availability” of ships at the moment. Some traders could even see a $100m profit on a cargo, TradeWinds was told. A charter by BP has shown just how hot the market is. The energy major has paid $190,000 per day for a one-year contract on the 160,000-cbm Golar Ice (built 2015), a tri-fuel diesel-electric vessel in the fleet of CoolCo.

Meanwhile, it looks like the container shipping party is well and truly over, with freight and charter rates continuing to drop at an alarming pace. Transpacific rates in particular have seen declines up 20% in recent days, with market conditions not seen since pre-pandemic days. Efforts by some carriers to cut sailings have so far not managed to stem the fall.

Allseas Shipping, a UK-based freight forwarder is in the midst of renegotiating an expensive charter for a boxship owned by a Chinese firm. A recent entrant to the market, Allseas has been trying to secure the vessel from Rotterdam where it has been stuck for the past month.

Next up, a product tanker owned by US insurance and investment company Tiptree Marine has fallen foul of a probe into an alleged “magic pipe” pollution incident. The ship’s crew members are accused of using a so-called magic pipe to get rid of bilge water at sea and bypass an oil-water separator or oil sensors and have been detained in the Texas port of Beaumont. Tiptree is in the process of disposing of its five-ship fleet.

And finally, a collision between an aframax and a container ship off the Malaysian coast was dramatic enough, judging by the pictures, but ambiguity over the tanker’s identity added an extra dimension of intrigue over the incident.

The aframax was the Panama-flagged, 106,000-dwt Zephyr I (built 2002), according to vessel-tracking websites, and was carrying a mixed bitumen cargo to China, according to Malaysian authorities. The ship’s ownership changed twice this year, with the vessel being renamed Zhen I by its new Turkish owners. The vessel was sold again this month just ahead of its special survey, and Equasis and S&P Global Market Intelligence still list the ship as Zhen I, not Zephyr I. The ship loaded oil in Russia in July.