Orders for more Car Carriers continue. Latest this week being two 6500ceu PCTCs contracted by Ocean Yield at DSME Mangalia. Ocean Yield is 100% owned by Aker ASA and was established this year as a ship owning company. Hoegh Autoliners will take both vessels on 12 years bareboat charter. Ray Shipping continues to increase his fleet of Car Carriers with the latest order for one more 6700ceu Car Carrier at Hyundai Mipo. Ray has now six 6700ceu PCTCs on order at Mipo.

Panama Canal tariffs for LNG carriers will be at least $1 million, Keith Bainbridge, an LNG consultant said at CWC's LNG conference in Singapore on Wednesday. Operators at the Panama Canal have said that the most significant change they expect to see in energy ship traffic through the 50-mile (80.5 km) canal will be the passage of LNG ships, which currently do not use the canal because they are too large.

Jinling shipyard has signed contracts for up to six 6,700-units Car Carriers with Global Car Carriers. We expect to see more orders being placed in China for this ship type in the next coming weeks. Two tanker vessels have been sold to Greek buyers in the secondhand market along with several dry bulk carriers too, according to Fearnleys Weekly.

In the NWE market, this week is still on the quiet side with only a few enquiries seen here and there and some occasional spot fixtures taking place. There were some fob trades reported but not much seen on the spot market thus keeping things dormant but with some optimism as there were signs of increased product demand.

Shell, announced it has signed a contract for the charter of two new build LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) powered tank barges. These 110 m long barges will operate on the Rhine and will be on charter to Shell from 2013. They will be built at Peters Shipyards in Kampen, The Netherlands and operated by Interstream Barging (ISB).

Shipbroker report LPG carrier GASCHEM TANA (9436 dwt, 1992 blt, BRAND, Germany) has been sold to Greek buyers for USD 10 million. Also in the secondhand market, product tanker vessel MOHEGAN (3851 dwt, 2003 blt, CEKSAN, Turkey) has also been sold to a Greek player at a price approaching USD 7.3 million.