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Hapag-Lloyd: Yantian Express Likely to Leave Freeport by Mid-May
The fire-stricken containership Yantian Express is likely to depart from Freeport, Bahamas during the first half of May 2019, according to German shipping major Hapag-Lloyd.
The repairs on the vessel are nearing completion and accordingly declaration of seaworthiness is expected shortly.
The company said that the ship’s departure is dependent on final technical approval of vessel class and refitting of hatch covers, after which Yantian Express would leave Freeport with the remaining cargo onboard.
The 7,506 TEU containership will then proceed to Halifax, Nova Scotia to deliver the containers. The exact date is currently unknown and will be confirmed once the company concludes forward schedule and terminal arrangements.
Hapag-Lloyd has urged all cargo interests to immediately provide the requested general average and salvage security to allow the remaining containers to be delivered with the aim of assisting the progress of vessel operational proceedings and salvage company approval.
“In spite of the fact that the deadline for submission has long expired, current status indicates that General Average and Salvage security has still not been posted for about one third of containers concerned.
As World Maritime News earlier reported, Yantian Express suffered a fire while sailing in the North Atlantic, some 650 nautical miles off the Canadian coast, on January 4.
In February, the boxship berthed in Freeport, Bahamas, to undergo the evaluation process and prepare for cargo discharge. Around 200 containers have been identified as a total loss.
OOCL’s Revenue, Volumes Continue Growing
Hong Kong-based Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL) delivered stronger revenues in the first quarter of 2019, with the largest rise experienced in the Trans-Atlantic trade.
For the quarter ended March 31, 2019, OOCL’s revenues increased by 5.9% to USD 1.46 billion from USD 1.37 billion reported in the same quarter a year earlier.
Revenue in the Trans-Atlantic trade surged by 16.3 percent year-over-year reaching USD 140.59 million, against a revenue of USD 120.88 million. The company’s Trans-Pacific, Asia/Europe and Intra-Asia/Australasia trades also delivered increases in revenue.
In the Trans-Pacific, revenue was up by 5.6 percent at USD 558.47 million, Asia/Europe revenue increased by 8.4 percent to USD 304.9 million, while Intra-Asia/Australasia revenue marked a slight rise of 2 percent, reaching USD 456.1 million.
Loadable capacity for the period increased by 2.3%, while the overall load factor was 0.5 percent lower than in the first quarter of 2018. Overall average revenue per TEU inflated by 4.2 percent compared to the first quarter of last year.
Total volumes continued rising and reached 1.6 million TEU, a 1.6 percent change during the three-month period.
Trans-Atlantic also recorded a strong rise in volumes, which jumped by 13.4 percent in the period to 116,822 TEU. Asia/Europe followed with an increase of 7.5%, handling 325,240 TEU, while Intra-Asia/Australasia volumes notched a minor rise or 0.8 percent. Trans-Pacific was the only service that witnessed a drop of 3.6 percent in volumes, handling 441,184 TEU during the period.
NYK Posts Red Ink, Changes Its Chairman
Japanese shipping company Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha (NYK Line) closed the fiscal year 2018 with a net loss of JPY 44.5 billion (USD 398.3 million).
The company sank to full-year loss from a profit of JPY 20.2 billion (USD 180.8 million) reported last year.
“These losses were recorded mainly due to the negative impact as well as extraordinary losses of the liner trade and air cargo transportation segment and due to related expenses for structural reforms of the dry bulk business,” NYK explained.
In the year ended March 31, 2019, revenues fell to JPY 1.8 trillion from JPY 2.2 trillion seen in the year ended March 31, 2018, down by 16.2 percent.
Operating income saw a larger decrease of 60.1 percent. It stood at JPY 11 billion in the year ended March 31, 2019, compared to JPY 27.8 billion posted a year earlier.
As explained, NYK’s liner segment witnessed losses due to higher than expected one-time costs resulting from service disruptions that occurred immediately after the new shipping line ONE started operations in April 2018.
“We are viewing the results of this year seriously. We have been implementing the necessary measures to improve financial results and stabilize the business of these two segments, and also to strengthen NYK group’s corporate governance since last year.”
“Additionally, the extraordinary losses including the expenses for structural reforms result in strengthening our business structure and performance,” the company further said.
NYK revealed that it anticipates a profit of JPY 26 billion in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2020. Specifically, the company expects the business performance in the liner trade and air cargo to “significantly improve”.
“In light of this improvement of business results and stabilization of business in the liner trade and air cargo transportation segment as well as the expected improvement in consolidated results for next year, we consulted with Nomination Advisory Committee this month and resolved a change of its chairman, president and representative directors,” NYK said.
Yasumi Kudo, the company’s current chairman, will take the position of a special advisor.
NYK’s former president, Tadaaki Naito, will become the new chairman.
OOCL acquisition boosts COSCO
Sharp increase in profit, revenues and volumes reflect the purchase of a majority interest in Orient Overseas (International) Ltd. last summer.
COSCO Shipping Holdings reported an increase in first-quarter revenue and profit, reflecting its acquisition last year of a majority stake in Orient Overseas (International) Ltd., the parent company of Orient Overseas Container Line, last July.
COSCO said it had net profit of 687 million Chinese yuan renminbi in the first quarter of 2019 compared with 181 million RMB in the first quarter of 2018.
During the first quarter of 2019, revenue totaled 35.1 billion RMB ($5.2 billion) compared to 21.9 billion RMB in the same 2018 period, nearly a 60 percent increase.
The company benefited from increased volumes and revenue in its liner business. It also saw an increase in containers handled at its container terminals.
In the first quarter of 2019, COSCO moved 5,881,731 TEUs, an increase of 42.6 percent from the first quarter of 2018. That big increase reflects the addition of 1,605,564 TEUs from OOCL.
COSCO also said revenue from its shipping routes amounted to 31.1 billion RMB or about $4.6 billion.
At the end of March, the fleet operated by COSCO included 478 container vessels, with a total shipping capacity of 2,775,313 TEUs. COSCO also had nine container vessels on order, with aggregate capacity of 159,421 TEUs.
COSCO Shipping Holdings said its terminals handled 30.6 million TEUs at its terminals in the first quarter of 2019 (about 6.67 million TEUs from terminals it controlled and 23.95 million TEUs in terminals in which it is an investor.)
Hyundai Heavy Industries swings back to profit in Q1
Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) has made a profit in the first quarter of 2019, reversing from its loss position in the year-ago period.
For the first three months of this year, the South Korean shipyard recorded a profit attributable to controlling interest of KRW2.8bn ($2.53m) as against the loss of KRW136.6bn in the same period of 2018.
First quarter revenue rose by 7.4% year-on-year to KRW3.27trn due mainly to rising newbuilding prices and favourable exchange rates.
“Although uncertainty still exists in the shipbuilding market, expectations for a recovery are rising as environmental regulations have been tightened recently and large-scale LNG projects have been launched. We will focus our capacity on LNG carriers in the future,” HHI stated.
In 2018, HHI suffered a full year loss of KRW656.5bn compared to a narrower loss of KRW 93.4bn in 2017, due to the higher costs of shipbuilding and reduced demand for higher value ships.
Drewry: Boxship Scrapping to Rise Ahead of IMO 2020
More containerships are expected to be demolished ahead of IMO 2020 implementation date, but progress has been slow thus far, shipping consultancy Drewry said.
Last week’s news that the US will cease granting waivers for the import of sanctioned Iranian oil will contribute to carriers’ rising operating expense in the short-term, but it is the lack of visibility into the extra fuel costs associated with IMO 2020 that is making it harder to plan much further ahead.
Drewry said it has long expected that IMO 2020 will trigger much greater scrapping of containerships as many older and less fuel-efficient ships will be rendered uneconomic. The rapidly increasing move towards fitting exhaust scrubbers could force charter rates down for some ships that are not fitted with the system, potentially swelling the number of demolition candidates.
“However, owners have thus far resisted a large scale cull that would help to alleviate the container market’s enduring over-capacity crisis.”
Last year represented an eight-year low for container ship demolitions when some 120,000 TEU was sold for scrap, a sum that would have been far lower were it not for a surge in the fourth quarter of 2018 when over half the annual total was removed from the active fleet.
“The good news, from a perspective of balancing the market, is that the late-year rise in scrapping activity has carried over into 2019.”
The number of confirmed demolitions year-to-date was fast approaching the annual tally of 2018 at around 90,000 TEU. Drewry’s annual scrapping forecast for this year now stands at around 300,000 TEU, down from our previous estimate of 450,000 TEU.
“Despite this much need reduction, our demolition forecast will only account for less than 2% of the current fleet of 22 million TEU.”
The average age of containerships that have been deleted so far this year is a smidge under 22 years. But as the containership fleet replenishes with newbuilds and the age profile gets younger, currently averaging 12 years, the pool of obvious scrapping options is receding.
About 85% of the fleet is less than 15 years old and is therefore highly unlikely to be sent to the demolition yards. Some 10% resides in the 15 to 20 age range, of which just over 100,000 TEU have either been retrofitted with an exhaust scrubber or are pending the system to be installed.
That leaves about 5% of the fleet over 20 years old. Excluding the very few ships in that bracket that are fitted with or pending scrubbers that means there is currently around 1.15 million TEU in low hanging fruit available to be scrapped, Drewry said, adding that “owners should get a move on”.
Souces: World Maritime News; American Shipper, Seatrade Maritime
