Bulker demolition has surged in recent years as the market has weakened. While scrapping volumes are still significantly lower than deliveries, the rise in recycling has nonetheless slowed fleet growth somewhat.

The freight rate war currently taking place between Asia and Europe, and between Asia and the US, and the further addition of new ships, will force carriers to resort to more slow steaming.

In recessions shipping sentiment can sometimes have a slightly schizophrenic feel. The more demolition mantra crops up again and again at conferences, which is fair enough. But it makes a strange bedfellow for the buy low sell high brigade who are desperately searching for cheap ships...

By Mike Corkhill

Last Summer, chemical tanker operators were looking forward to seeing a glimpse of light at the end of what promised to be quite a long tunnel. The majority agreed that the market rebound was still two years off and that the return to a balanced fleet, respectable freight rates and profitable operations was on the cards for 2014. The hatches would have to remain battened down until then.

The shipyard industry seemed to head straight for the output-abyss just 15 months ago. Today the transition from recent years' record high shipyard output to a more sustainable level of output appears to soft-land with global shipyard output clearly slowing down.

Ocean carriers’ recent container terminal sales implies the need for more cash reserves to see them through a further period of financial drought. Although ocean carriers’ recent annual reports paint a profitable picture in 2013, continuing asset sales indicates that confidence is not running high.

Since the major technical concerns and the big challenge of harmonization between the performance standards for type approved systems and the procedures for testing, sampling and monitoring by Port State Control (PSC) have been overcome, the IMO BWM Convention is close to being ratified, maybe before the end of this year.

It might come as something of a relief to marine accident investigators to know that a majority of seafarers say they are willing to co-operate with them. In their line of work, any level of co-operation is to be welcomed, given that, as a former senior investigator recently noted, few are on their side, as everyone involved has a vested interest and some “have a particular axe to grind”.

Container trade will grow by 4.7% this year and 5.7% next year, reaching 684 million teu by the end of next year, according to the latest forecasts from Drewry. Port capacity is only expected reach 994 million teu by 2014 increasing at a CAGR of 3.9% since 2011, which will nudge average utilisation up to 69% in 2014 from 67% in 2011.