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Thursday, 18 April 13
FEATURE: PREDICTING THE FUTURE - AND THE PAST - BIMCO
 It’s not predicting the future that is problematical, it’s the realisation that you have to relive the past again and again when you fail to learn from your mistakes. So much so in fact that, like a scientist studying the formation of the universe, it should become possible to predict the past too.
Shipping knows exactly how this feels, having ignored the simplest of supply/demand equations and instead put its faith in fanciful predictions that the world – and therefore business – had changed forever.
The trouble is that the more things change, the more they also stay the same. The belief that an industry could break completely free of the cycles which had marked its history for hundreds of years was in fact a departure from reality, the consequences of which we continue to live with.
At least we know now, in case we did not before, that the world will continue to be a difficult place in which to trade, and one need only attend one of the regular shipping industry trade shows to experience that feeling first hand.
Even in Asia, grounded more in trade and consumption rather than the optimism of capital markets, there is an expectation that the world which emerges from the industry’s longest downturn in a generation will be different to the one that went into it.
Classification Society Lloyd’s Register used the recent Singapore Maritime Week to launch its own piece of long range research, laying down competing scenarios of what the industry might have to be grappling with by 2030.
A thorough piece of work put together by LR, QinetiQ and Strathclyde University, it nonetheless can only really succeed in telling the reader what they might already suspect, particularly with regard to the economic/political backdrop.
It seems highly unlikely, for example, that the world will adopt anything but an aggressive posture to protection and preference, not simply for the length of the recession but subsequently, as the emerging nations that (again, we know) will come to dominate the industry flex their muscles.
The shipping industry gives thanks en masse for China’s rise but it must surely recognise that the trading partner with which it will have to deal is no US, no Europe, not even a Russia.
Shipping has traditionally enjoyed freedom of capital, movement of people, goods and services, all commodities it cannot be certain will be so readily available in future. The evidence of the tension emerging in Singapore last week over the need to balance immigration against the requirement to import skills to cement the city-state’s future growth is one clear example and far from being the only one.
Shipping also likes to be left alone and to do its own thing, rather in the same way as entrepreneurs enjoy conditions of privacy to found and grow businesses – unfettered by regulation and competitive constraints, served by relatively free-flowing debt financing.
Again, little to no hope there. Shipping’s dalliance with unreality has left it, if not high and dry, then in a new room with different lenders with very different ideas compared to its former ship finance partners.
Shipping is also highly regulated, but in some areas, less highly regulated than other comparable industries. The trouble is that the industry has done a bad job too often of arguing its case that the positives outweigh the negatives.
There are a number of reasons for that, not least that its main regulator has to juggle the demands of being a technical body on the one hand with being a political one on the other. The tidal wave of opprobrium heaped upon regulators during CMA was a little less obvious during Maritime Week but it is clear the costs of compliance, the need to demonstrate transparency and the requirement to operate under greater scrutiny will all be firm future requirements.
But can shipping change by enough to meet these needs? Of course it should – by practising restraint, by being more commercially adept, by making friends with regulators earlier in the rulemaking process, by recognising that market share without profit margin is a pointless metric and that it something looks too good to be true, it probably is.
To carve out a survival strategy that goes beyond merely putting off the inevitable for another seven years, shipping certainly has to get smarter, and not just in terms of the above commercial issues, however pressing they appear.
Shipping needs to cure itself of the affliction that it has suffered under for at least the last 20 years – you take care of providing sufficient growth, we’ll take care of the rest. The industry is being asked tough questions about its place in the world, just at the time when it has demonstrated the definition of commercial irresponsibility and lack of regulatory engagement. So, back to the future. There is a fine living to be made predicting even short term scenarios, but better cuttings and weblinks to be garnered by mopping up in the aftermath. Most of those doing the latter focus on how we failed to spot the emergence of various technologies and services in time to either make our fortunes or to adopt them to our competitive advantage, preferring to dismiss them as the short term fads driven by people who just want to sell us things before our current things have worn out.
But watch this space – there are two factors that will be decisive in marking out corporates for survival and perhaps the wider industry for adaptive evolution: attitudes to people and the use of technology. The entry into force of the MLC might not by itself guarantee better working conditions for all seafarers but it demonstrates a much clearer focus by regulators that owners will be unable to ignore and should turn to their advantage.
And as for technology? Well, without new approaches to designing, building and operating ships, incorporating not just some tried and trusted techniques but new – and as yet unproven – technologies, there is little hope of meeting future regulatory hurdles and energy efficiency requirements.
I said that predicting the past was possible and here is the history lesson. Owners will adapt and survive. Some will leave the stage and some big names disappear but long before 2030, we will see a new industry emerge. In fact this is not a prediction. It will have to happen.
Source: BIMCO / Hellenic Shipping
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Thursday, 09 May 13
KILLARA AUSTRALIA ACQUIRES 80% INTEREST IN BORNEO EMAS HITAM
COALspot.com - Killara Resources has announced that, the company has signed a binding MoU to acquire an 80% equity interest in PT. Borneo Emas Hitam ...
Thursday, 09 May 13
THE WORLD LARGEST POWER PLANT COAL EXPORTER SHIPPED 36 MILLION TONS OF COAL IN MARCH
COALspot.com: Indonesia, the world largest multi grade coal exporter has shipped 36.165* million tons of coal in March 2013.
Ac ...
Thursday, 09 May 13
DRY BULK SHIP OWNERS KEEP BUILDING NEW VESSELS ON THE BACK OF LOWER PRICES AND IMPROVED MARKET PROSPECTS - NIKOS ROUSSANOGLOU, HELLENIC SHIPPING
Despite the doom and gloom that the dry bulk market has experienced during the past couple of years and especially during 2012, ship owners have inc ...
Thursday, 09 May 13
HANDY : RBCT ROUNDS FIXED AT USD 8000 DOP ECI - FEARNRESEARCH
Handy
The atlantic market started to pick up with new orders. The USG-Feast was at USD 20k and Black sea-feast was at USD 12k. The pacific mkt rema ...
Wednesday, 08 May 13
PANAMAX VESSELS PROVE TO BE "STARS OF THE MONTH" FOR THE DRY BULK MARKET DURING APRIL - NIKOS ROUSSANOGLOU, HELLENIC SHIPPING NEWS
They have taken a beating on various occasions during the past few years of the dry bulk market's crisis, but the fact remains, that despite the he ...
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- Truba Alam Manunggal Engineering.Tbk - Indonesia
- Indian Energy Exchange, India
- San Jose City I Power Corp, Philippines
- Posco Energy - South Korea
- Global Coal Blending Company Limited - Australia
- Independent Power Producers Association of India
- Kapuas Tunggal Persada - Indonesia
- Larsen & Toubro Limited - India
- Indonesian Coal Mining Association
- AsiaOL BioFuels Corp., Philippines
- Heidelberg Cement - Germany
- White Energy Company Limited
- Trasteel International SA, Italy
- Carbofer General Trading SA - India
- Toyota Tsusho Corporation, Japan
- VISA Power Limited - India
- SN Aboitiz Power Inc, Philippines
- Tamil Nadu electricity Board
- OPG Power Generation Pvt Ltd - India
- LBH Netherlands Bv - Netherlands
- Globalindo Alam Lestari - Indonesia
- Dong Bac Coal Mineral Investment Coporation - Vietnam
- SMG Consultants - Indonesia
- Ministry of Finance - Indonesia
- New Zealand Coal & Carbon
- Attock Cement Pakistan Limited
- PetroVietnam Power Coal Import and Supply Company
- Formosa Plastics Group - Taiwan
- Bhushan Steel Limited - India
- Medco Energi Mining Internasional
- Therma Luzon, Inc, Philippines
- Indian Oil Corporation Limited
- TNB Fuel Sdn Bhd - Malaysia
- Banpu Public Company Limited - Thailand
- Gujarat Electricity Regulatory Commission - India
- Price Waterhouse Coopers - Russia
- Dr Ramakrishna Prasad Power Pvt Ltd - India
- Pendopo Energi Batubara - Indonesia
- Asia Pacific Energy Resources Ventures Inc, Philippines
- Mercator Lines Limited - India
- Jorong Barutama Greston.PT - Indonesia
- Oldendorff Carriers - Singapore
- CIMB Investment Bank - Malaysia
- Meenaskhi Energy Private Limited - India
- Bangladesh Power Developement Board
- Parry Sugars Refinery, India
- McConnell Dowell - Australia
- Sinarmas Energy and Mining - Indonesia
- Ceylon Electricity Board - Sri Lanka
- Gujarat Mineral Development Corp Ltd - India
- Sindya Power Generating Company Private Ltd
- Orica Mining Services - Indonesia
- Marubeni Corporation - India
- Gujarat Sidhee Cement - India
- Riau Bara Harum - Indonesia
- Sakthi Sugars Limited - India
- Antam Resourcindo - Indonesia
- Krishnapatnam Port Company Ltd. - India
- Vedanta Resources Plc - India
- Makarim & Taira - Indonesia
- Directorate General of MIneral and Coal - Indonesia
- Straits Asia Resources Limited - Singapore
- Star Paper Mills Limited - India
- IEA Clean Coal Centre - UK
- Filglen & Citicon Mining (HK) Ltd - Hong Kong
- Uttam Galva Steels Limited - India
- Energy Link Ltd, New Zealand
- Vizag Seaport Private Limited - India
- Georgia Ports Authority, United States
- Neyveli Lignite Corporation Ltd, - India
- Kobexindo Tractors - Indoneisa
- Borneo Indobara - Indonesia
- Bukit Asam (Persero) Tbk - Indonesia
- Kumho Petrochemical, South Korea
- London Commodity Brokers - England
- Karaikal Port Pvt Ltd - India
- PTC India Limited - India
- Meralco Power Generation, Philippines
- Leighton Contractors Pty Ltd - Australia
- Bharathi Cement Corporation - India
- Deloitte Consulting - India
- Videocon Industries ltd - India
- Karbindo Abesyapradhi - Indoneisa
- Coastal Gujarat Power Limited - India
- Global Business Power Corporation, Philippines
- Interocean Group of Companies - India
- Semirara Mining Corp, Philippines
- Bukit Makmur.PT - Indonesia
- The University of Queensland
- Chettinad Cement Corporation Ltd - India
- Pipit Mutiara Jaya. PT, Indonesia
- Xindia Steels Limited - India
- Alfred C Toepfer International GmbH - Germany
- Metalloyd Limited - United Kingdom
- Bahari Cakrawala Sebuku - Indonesia
- Dalmia Cement Bharat India
- Thiess Contractors Indonesia
- Mercuria Energy - Indonesia
- Salva Resources Pvt Ltd - India
- Essar Steel Hazira Ltd - India
- Chamber of Mines of South Africa
- Barasentosa Lestari - Indonesia
- Petron Corporation, Philippines
- Intertek Mineral Services - Indonesia
- Energy Development Corp, Philippines
- Sarangani Energy Corporation, Philippines
- ASAPP Information Group - India
- Aboitiz Power Corporation - Philippines
- Indika Energy - Indonesia
- Australian Coal Association
- Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd
- Parliament of New Zealand
- Altura Mining Limited, Indonesia
- Renaissance Capital - South Africa
- Global Green Power PLC Corporation, Philippines
- Simpson Spence & Young - Indonesia
- Minerals Council of Australia
- Latin American Coal - Colombia
- Edison Trading Spa - Italy
- Miang Besar Coal Terminal - Indonesia
- Semirara Mining and Power Corporation, Philippines
- CNBM International Corporation - China
- Power Finance Corporation Ltd., India
- GAC Shipping (India) Pvt Ltd
- Malabar Cements Ltd - India
- Tata Chemicals Ltd - India
- Vijayanagar Sugar Pvt Ltd - India
- Offshore Bulk Terminal Pte Ltd, Singapore
- Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand
- Maheswari Brothers Coal Limited - India
- Rio Tinto Coal - Australia
- Merrill Lynch Commodities Europe
- Anglo American - United Kingdom
- Siam City Cement PLC, Thailand
- Eastern Energy - Thailand
- Kalimantan Lumbung Energi - Indonesia
- PNOC Exploration Corporation - Philippines
- Central Electricity Authority - India
- Mjunction Services Limited - India
- IHS Mccloskey Coal Group - USA
- Singapore Mercantile Exchange
- Ambuja Cements Ltd - India
- Indo Tambangraya Megah - Indonesia
- Aditya Birla Group - India
- Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission - India
- GVK Power & Infra Limited - India
- Savvy Resources Ltd - HongKong
- Standard Chartered Bank - UAE
- Jindal Steel & Power Ltd - India
- Bhoruka Overseas - Indonesia
- Iligan Light & Power Inc, Philippines
- Commonwealth Bank - Australia
- Madhucon Powers Ltd - India
- Directorate Of Revenue Intelligence - India
- Agrawal Coal Company - India
- International Coal Ventures Pvt Ltd - India
- Thai Mozambique Logistica
- Lanco Infratech Ltd - India
- European Bulk Services B.V. - Netherlands
- Wilmar Investment Holdings
- TeaM Sual Corporation - Philippines
- The State Trading Corporation of India Ltd
- Bayan Resources Tbk. - Indonesia
- ICICI Bank Limited - India
- Binh Thuan Hamico - Vietnam
- Bhatia International Limited - India
- Kohat Cement Company Ltd. - Pakistan
- Ind-Barath Power Infra Limited - India
- Goldman Sachs - Singapore
- Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited - India
- Economic Council, Georgia
- Petrochimia International Co. Ltd.- Taiwan
- Eastern Coal Council - USA
- Bulk Trading Sa - Switzerland
- Sree Jayajothi Cements Limited - India
- Cement Manufacturers Association - India
- Coalindo Energy - Indonesia
- Planning Commission, India
- MS Steel International - UAE
- Port Waratah Coal Services - Australia
- Sical Logistics Limited - India
- Ministry of Transport, Egypt
- Mintek Dendrill Indonesia
- Siam City Cement - Thailand
- Indogreen Group - Indonesia
- Holcim Trading Pte Ltd - Singapore
- Wood Mackenzie - Singapore
- Asmin Koalindo Tuhup - Indonesia
- Cigading International Bulk Terminal - Indonesia
- Romanian Commodities Exchange
- Timah Investasi Mineral - Indoneisa
- Central Java Power - Indonesia
- Kartika Selabumi Mining - Indonesia
- Ministry of Mines - Canada
- Electricity Authority, New Zealand
- Grasim Industreis Ltd - India
- Jaiprakash Power Ventures ltd
- India Bulls Power Limited - India
- Orica Australia Pty. Ltd.
- PowerSource Philippines DevCo
- GN Power Mariveles Coal Plant, Philippines
- Africa Commodities Group - South Africa
- GMR Energy Limited - India
- SMC Global Power, Philippines
- Samtan Co., Ltd - South Korea
- Bukit Baiduri Energy - Indonesia
- Coal and Oil Company - UAE
- South Luzon Thermal Energy Corporation
- Australian Commodity Traders Exchange
- Baramulti Group, Indonesia
- Kaltim Prima Coal - Indonesia
- Billiton Holdings Pty Ltd - Australia
- The Treasury - Australian Government
- Sojitz Corporation - Japan
- Kideco Jaya Agung - Indonesia
- Manunggal Multi Energi - Indonesia
- Kepco SPC Power Corporation, Philippines
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