It is a dilemma as old as the shipping industry itself: How can shipowners be encouraged to scrap enough vessels to put their markets back into a healthy balance?
Well, Frontline's latest conference call may have provided a couple of solutions.
The final question came from private investor Louis McGiven from Pittsburgh.
He questioned Frontline chief executive Robert Hvide Macleod about how much scrap prices influenced the decision of shipping companies to recycle vessels.
Macleod explained that fluctuations in prices comprise an important part of the decision-making process.
McGiven then said: "Well, maybe you could talk some of these shipbuilders into offering bonuses to the scrappers to tie in a sale of the new vessel to scrapping a ship?"
This spurred a quick-thinking Macleod to respond with his own off-the-wall suggestion: "Yes, that could be a way of doing it — or making a pool of all the old ships and then get the balance back quicker that way."
TradeWinds would love to see either of these ideas implemented, as long as Louis from Pittsburgh gets a cut.
