After years of trying, Maersk Group has admitted that it cannot find a buyer for its offshore vessel division, Maersk Supply Service. 

Citing the continued market oversupply, extensive consolidation, years of market distress and a poor OSV sector outlook, Maersk said that the division's valuation and market cap has been reduced. This has made it difficult to find a buyer or other exit solution, Maersk said. 

“We have over the past two years been investigating various structural solutions for Maersk Supply Service. However, having been unable to establish any solutions meeting our objective of creating shareholder value, we have decided to retain Maersk Supply Service,” said Claus V. Hemmingsen, Vice CEO of A.P. Moller – Maersk and CEO of the Energy division.

Maersk said that the offshore supply division has been investing in new business lines and that this effort is paying off. In 2018, about 30 percent of Maersk Supply Service’s revenue was generated from new business, including offshore wind, ocean cleanup and deep-sea mining.

“Our diversification initiatives are building presence in other markets and enable us to be less dependent on the traditional Oil & Gas market in the future," said Maersk Supply CEO Steen S. Karstensen. "With our modern fleet and skilled people, we are well positioned to take advantage of market opportunities in the future and differentiate us from our peers." 

The division's 44-vessel fleet has an average age of less than ten years, and it is still accepting delivery of newbuilds that it ordered in 2014, before the market downturn began.

Maersk Supply Service is far from the only operator in the sector to face challenging business conditions. Bourbon Offshore has deferred its debt repayments, sold off ships and cut crew levels amidst persistent underutilization and low day rates. Tidewater and Gulfmark both went through bankruptcy, then merged under Tidewater's ownership.

Reference: maritime-executive.com

“800 hundred executives providing 24-hour services in Marine Travel Facility plan during Nowruz” said Director General of Ports and Maritime of Hormozgan.

Allah Morad Afifipour told reporters that There are 49 passenger vessels with 5,361 seats and 59 landing craft with caspacity of 1,960 vehicles. Of these, four thousand and 90 seats are available in the port of Shahid Haghani and majority o9f landing crafts are in Bandar-e-Pul and Lahat.

This Nowruz is the second year in which guests take on board, and this is welcomed by Marine guests. 800 hundred executives providing 24-hour services in Marine Travel Facility plan during Nowruz.

Referring to the construction of Qeshm's tourist quay infrastructure project, Afifipour stated “Sustainable and effective employment among communities of this island has been a priority of  us. In this project, floating docks at seven tourism points in Qeshm Island and two points in the east of the province were Designed and installed this year the infrastructure of these points has been completed”

Reference: pmo.ir

A failure to recover the extra fuel costs in full may result in bankruptcies in the container shipping industry, international shipping association BIMCO said.

As the starting line for the International Maritime Organization (IMO) sulphur cap approaches, the dominant theme of 2019 will be the sharing of the higher costs that are expected in various forms towards the end of the year, according to the association.

These extra costs will come either as a result of purchase of fuels, which are more expensive than heavy sulphur fuel oil (HSFO), or investments in abatement technologies that will allow carriage and consumption of HSFO.

As explained, profit margins in this industry will be reduced everywhere unless these costs are passed on to the end customer through the whole supply chain. According to BIMCO, the ability of container shipping to pass on increases depends on its negotiating power and a fundamentally strong freight market.

Moreover, BIMCO said that the gloomy outlook in container shipping seems certain for this year and is likely to be extended.

Containerized imports in Europe look likely to be stuck with demand growth of no more than 2% for years to come. That means the long-hauls into northern and southern Europe, where ultra large containerships are perfectly suited to reap the benefits of economies of scale, will suffer unless cascading is accelerated.

As the US East Coast ports are now fully equipped with cranes to cater for ultra large containerships, the nation saw strong import growth into the US via this route in 2017 (10%) and again in 2018 (8%). More cargo is likely to follow this trend, away from the more crowded options of the US West Coast. Despite this, BIMCO forecasts overall imports into the US will be lower in 2019 when compared with 2018.

The higher growth rates are expected on North-South trades, highlighting South America and imports into Africa as places where volumes – but not so much freight rates – could improve in 2019.

The annual contracts for transpacific cargoes – normally running from May to April – are negotiated soon. Although higher freight rates are expected, tough and difficult negotiations lie ahead, as markets have weakened somewhat since Q4 2018.

Looking into 2019, BIMCO is forecasting a 3.4% container-fleet growth rate, assuming demolition levels remain low. Should the initial demolition level, set at 100,000 TEU, turn out to be twice as high, fleet growth in this shipping industry will be reduced by 0.5% to 2.9%.

Reference: pmo.ir

The fifth meeting of Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) reference marine organizations kicked off on Wednesday

Headed by ECO’s Secretary General Hadi Soleimanpour, the gathering was attended by the representatives from all member nations.

Speaking in the meeting, Soleimanpour expressed the importance of cooperation between the member states in maritime sector, saying, “The main objective of this gathering is to expand cooperation between member states in the field of maritime navigation and also to connect landlocked nations to the sea through coastal members.”

The official noted that maritime transportation is a key factor for economic development of all ECO members, adding “connecting the landlocked members to the ports in coastal countries is among ECO’s top priorities.”

“For over 40 years, ECO nations have been investing extensively in development of various transport infrastructure in the area, however the members should continue their efforts to eliminate various barriers, such as customs and other problems which halts fluent transit.” he said.

Soleimanpour further noted it is estimated that by 2025 about 80 percent of the residents of ECO countries will have access to transit and communication ways such as rail and road.

In April 2018, during the 23rd meeting of ECO foreign ministers in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, the rotating presidency of ECO was handed to the Islamic Republic of Iran for a three-year term.

ECO is an inter-governmental regional organization encompassing countries from Europe, Caucuses and Central Asia, Middle East and South Asia with more than 460 million inhabitants and over 8 million square kilometers connecting Russia to the Persian Gulf and China to Europe.

The overall objective of the organization is the sustainable economic development of its member states and the region as a whole.

Reference: pmo.ir

The Women's International Shipping & Trading Association (WISTA) has launched its inclusion pledge which addresses the under representation of women in the maritime industry.

The pledge is a series of statements aimed at embracing diversity through individual action and personal responsibility. Individuals are encouraged to sign the pledge in support of a diverse and inclusive maritime sector. The pledge can be found online on the WISTA International website or Change.org.

Signatories of the pledge commit to "Embrace diversity of thought (including gender, race, ethnicity, and age) and contribute to a merit-based business environment within my organisation. I will be a champion of equal opportunity and equal pay. My behavior will reflect how I wish our industry to behave in the future. I will work - and encourage others to work - toward a diverse and inclusive maritime sector."

WISTA International President Despina Panayiotou Theodosiou said: "We geared this pledge to individuals, for we feel strongly that individuals have the power to bring about change."

In 2018, WISTA International appointed a Diversity Committee to focus on practical solutions to increase opportunities for gender diversity in the maritime industry. Writing a pledge to challenge the community to advance diversity and inclusion was a mandate of the committee.

WISTA has produced a Gender Diversity Manual in conjunction with ISWAN and Anglo-Eastern.

Formed in 1974, WISTA International is a global networking organization for female managers in the shipping industry, with more than 3,000 members worldwide, and 45 national WISTA associations. The number of associations continues to grow, and earlier this month a national association was established in Chile.

WISTA was approved for consultative status with the IMO in July 2018, providing the organization with a formal voice for supporting IMO work in a variety of areas. 

Last week IMO Secretary-General Kitack Lim gave an address on empowering women in the maritime community, the World Maritime Day theme for this year. The theme provides an opportunity to raise awareness of the importance of gender equality, in line with the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals, particularly SDG5, and to highlight the important, yet under-utilized, contribution of women within the maritime sector.

Reference: maritime-executive.com

India’s deputy minister of transport said on Tue. that Chabahar port will be considered as India’s sole connecting point for the development of Afghanistan.

He made the remark in the 1st International Conference on the Development of Chabahar Port in Sistan and Baluchestan province.He reiterated that the Indian trade and business delegation is the largest foreign delegation taking part at the conference.

The Indian deputy minister pointed to the history of economic and cultural cooperation between the two countries, adding “our bilateral business and trade ties date back to many years ago. Iranian and Indian people have traditionally traded with one another from long time ago.”

He then pointed to the significance of Chabahar port for India’s trade with Afghanistan and said, “presently, a major portion of India’s economic exchanges are done via Chabahar port, and we have considered Chabahar port to ship products to neighboring Afghanistan.”Afghanistan’s first cargo of products was shipped to India’s Bombay port via Chabahar port, he added.

Turning to the significance of completion of Chabahar-Zahedan railway for boosting India’s trade exchanges with Afghanistan and the need to complete infrastructures in Chabahar port, he said, “once the construction operation of Qazvin-Rasht-Astara Railway is put into operation, it can be used as two connecting corridors of India with the Central Asia and Caucasus.”

Reference: pmo.ir