Editor’s selection: Kitack’s rallying call; What next in Eagle Bulk-Danaos tussle?; and life lessons from shipping journalism

A rallying call from International Maritime Organization secretary general Kitack Lim for governments to be “ambitious and bold” has primed the regulator to make a historic commitment to decarbonise shipping by 2050. At the time of writing, a draft agreement was being put together by a working group requiring governments to achieve net zero or zero greenhouse gas emissions in the next 25 years. The draft will be put forward for adoption at the upcoming Marine Environment Protection Committee meeting next week.

As we hit a period of calm amid the poison pill storm between Connecticut’s Eagle Bulk Shipping and its new 16.7% shareholder, fellow shipowner Danaos of Greece, Joe Brady gauged the views of equity analysts on what could come next.

Reset to Monday and the week started with a bang as news emerged that UK shipbroker Braemar was delaying its financial results for the second year running and suspending trading in its shares next month as it probed a historic transaction. The nature of the deal was not disclosed and the shop declined to comment further.

Meanwhile, Global broking group Affinity (Shipping) has hired six staff from Lorentzen & Co, which declared bankruptcy last week. Affinity Dry, the group’s bulker-focused arm, will set up a new base in New York with ex-Lorentzen staff.

Greek shipowner George Economou is said to have added two more large bulker newbuildings to his growing orderbook. The additional orders come amid a rally in dry bulk contracting as owners look to snap up the remaining delivery slots in 2025 and 2026.

Details are only now emerging of a major accident at China’s Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding in China during the assembly of a container ship newbuilding earlier this month. At least three yard workers were killed and several injured while working on an X-Press Feeders 7,000-teu boxship, Irene Ang reported. The accident raises questions over safety procedures at the shipyard during a routine part of the production process.

New York-listed Scorpio Tankers has sealed a mammoth $1bn debt package that is tipped to accelerate its unwinding of higher-priced lease financing. Scorpio management first disclosed on 2 May in a quarterly earnings call that it was in talks with “a group of financial institutions” for a term loan and revolving credit facility that would run between $750m and $1bn in total.

How did Top Ships turn $43.4trn into 60 cents? That’s the subject of our weekly Streetwise finance newsletter, which takes a look at the long-term destruction of share value at Top Ships and related criticism of the Maxim Group.

This week’s Green Seas newsletter digs into the debate over when to enact the policy measures that will be needed to achieve ambitious decarbonisation targets that the International Maritime Organization is expected to be adopted next week.

And finally, long-time TradeWinds reporter Paul Berrill reflects on a career spent in shipping journalism and mulls life lessons from his 35 years spent covering the industry.