Euronav’s supervisory board is seeking dialogue with warring shareholders John Fredriksen and the Saverys family as arbitration and a bid to remove directors continue. The Belgian tanker giant said in its fourth-quarter report that chairman Grace Reksten Skaugen and colleagues have “reached out proactively” to Fredriksen’s Famatown Finance after it built its stake further following the failed merger with the tycoon’s Frontline.

Analysts have speculated on one possible way of ending the three-way stand-off among the parties: a demerger. One way to split the company would be to spin off the conventional fleet to Frontline and the ammonia-ready newbuildings to the Saverys’ Compagnie Maritime Belge, according to Clarksons. Meanwhile, Euronav chief executive Hugo De Stoop sought to explain arbitration over the junked transaction by using an analogy about divorce.

Ships stranded around the Ukrainian port of Mykolaiv are set to be the centre of war risk insurance payouts amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars on the anniversary of Russia’s invasion. The region has the highest concentration of ships that have remained stranded at Ukraine ports since Russian tanks rolled across the border on 24 February last year.

Administrators of failed UK-based Allseas Global Project Logistics have laid out for creditors the story of high hopes at the peak of a spiking container market, and the fatal commercial and operational shocks that followed. The subsidiary of Allseas Global Logistics is now in liquidation after what had seemed like a bright future for the company.

CMA CGM is said to be pressing ahead with its decarbonisation drive by investing $2bn in a series of methanol-propelled boxships at Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries, despite freight rates collapsing. The 12-ship deal will be the second methanol-fuelled newbuilding contract that the French line has signed.

Two shipowners that regularly place near the top of shipping’s rankings on environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) measures have won further approval from the most famously ESG-conscious investment fund in the US. Eagle Bulk Shipping and International Seaways have seen BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, increase its stakes in the companies since the last reporting, according to public filings revealed this week.

In our Green Seas environment newsletter this week, Eric Priante Martin looks at how Cargill aims to build up its biofuels business. The commodities giant recently took the dive into methanol fuelling with a pioneering bulker order and is gearing up for its first wind-propelled voyage, but another decarbonisation strategy is far further along.

And finally, in our latest protection and indemnity sector Business Focus, TradeWinds reporter Adam Corbett looks at how the repercussions of the Ukraine crisis are still being felt as P&I renewals approach; the Swedish Club’s next frontier; and a new era for North and Standard.

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