Tuesday March 31, 2020 Daily Briefing Leading maritime commerce since 1734 LEAD STORY: Saudis join floating storage surge Saudis join floating storage as oil surplus strains land-based capacity surge as oil surplus strains WHAT TO WATCH: land-based capacity Coronavirus: More cargo ship seafarers test positive Lockdown brings Indian subcontinent ship scrapping to a halt Capital dispute with AISSOT traced to sanctions fear Coronavirus: Singapore allows crew changes under special circumstances OPINION: Lifting Trump’s tariffs on China could boost the medical supply chain ANALYSIS: Coronavirus: No let-up in boxship blank sailings Coronavirus: Støhle says ‘buoyant’ SAUDI ARABIAN OIL trader Aramco Trading Co has reportedly spot LNG charter market is chartered three very large crude carriers for floating storage, joining unexpected companies including Shell, Vitol and Trafigura that have hired tankers MARKETS: to profit from an oversupply of crude and refined products amid China Merchants orders four plunging prices. multipurpose ships and sells three small tankers The Kingdom’s storage play suggests that ATC is running out of land- China Merchants Port warns on based capacity as the coronavirus lockdown slashes oil demand by 20% weakening economic outlook over March and April. ATC leases or owns land-based storage tanks off Fujairah, Yanbu, Ain Sukhna and Malaysia, according to its annual Coronavirus: Trucker shortage report. delaying cargo at Indian ports IN OTHER NEWS: One of the three ATC-chartered VLCCs was listed as Cosgrand Lake, Coronavirus: Call for seafarers to be owned by Chinese shipowner Cosco, according to shipbroker reports. regarded as ‘key personnel’ Asahi to build first battery-powered The other two were also said to be Cosco-owned tonnage. All VLCCs tankers were taken at a daily rate of $100,000 for a six-month period. ICTSI warns on lockdowns impact at They are among some 21 VLCCs reported chartered for periods of Manila between six and 12 months in the past two weeks, with nine fixtures Moscow raises the stakes over US specifically listing the tankers were designated for floating storage. sanctions on oil firm Oil companies and traders are turning to storing oil at sea as prices hit 18-year lows. The 20% drop in crude demand equates to some 600m barrels of surplus oil in a month — unprecedented volumes that will strain existing land-based tank capacity. Lloyd’s List | Daily Briefing Tuesday 31st March Page 1 Shell has amassed at least five VLCCs for six-month pandemic now gripping Europe and the US, periods over the fortnight, paying as much as paralysing air and land transport. $120,000 per day for its last tanker charter, shipbroker reports show, almost double levels seen The oil price rout and marketing contango allows for similar deals at the beginning of March. Oil floating storage to be profitable for VLCCs that are trader Trafigura has taken at least three VLCCs, and fixed for six-month period charters at levels of Vitol was reported to be taking two. $139,000 daily or lower, according to figures from Norwegian investment bank, Cleaves Securities. The flurry of floating storage fixtures has reignited a rally in crude tanker spot rates, with at least two Smaller tanker sizes are also being chartered for charters provisionally agreed at rates equating to floating storage of refined products, particularly jet more than $260,000 daily over Friday and Monday. fuel, for which demand has crashed to just 10% of normal levels. Until then, rates had quickly deflated since mid- March, when Saudi Arabia’s oil price war with Newbuilding VLCCs leaving Asian shipyards could Russia to keep market share triggered a surge in also be deployed to store jet fuel. crude tanker rates to the highest since the tanker wars of the early 1980s. Floating storage is near record levels, with 127.4m barrels stored on 84 tankers for the week ending Saudi Arabian shipping company Bahri paid a March 26, according to Lloyd’s List Intelligence data. record-breaking $350,000 daily to charter a VLCC, which was one of 20 hired over a 10-day period to That is down from the record 131.2m barrels seen in load additional crude cargoes. the prior week. Figures are inflated by sanctioned tankers, with Iran’s National Iranian Tanker Saudi Arabia’s pledge to flood the market with Company accounting for 38 of the 53 VLCCs additional crude coincided with the coronavirus currently used for floating storage. WHAT TO WATCH Coronavirus: More cargoship seafarers test positive CASES of coronavirus infections on board cargo treatment for those infected and to protect the vessels are increasing, following the cases reported remaining crew,” said the company. on a Maersk boxship last week. One infected crew member was said to have safely Two of the 17 crew members — the chief officer and transferred to a hospital on March 28 and is third officer — on a Pacific Basin dry bulker tested recovering well. Arrangements to hospitalise the positive at Valparaiso anchorage, Chile on March 27, other two sick seafarers start on March 30. while the second officer was suffering from a fever, according to an internal company circular seen by All the remaining crew were evaluated on March 29 Lloyd’s List. and are being monitored to test their temperature and other symptoms, Pacific Basin added. The The vessel was said to have been requested by local families of the crew members have been informed authorities to “remain at the anchorage for latest 14 and are being kept updated on the situation. days for quarantine or drift off port limits without calling another port”. “The owner is currently taking extra precautions to minimise the impact of coronavirus and protect the In an email response, the Hong Kong-listed dry crew’s health. The health and wellness of all the bulker owner confirmed the infections on the 37,528 crew is a primary concern at this time,” the dwt Isabela Island. statement said. “The owner has been working with the local The circular said the vessel had not been to China authorities to obtain the best possible medical and the entire crew joined before January 23. The Lloyd’s List | Daily Briefing Tuesday 31st March Page 2 company is checking whether local Chilean officers List that the information was inaccurate. The person will be available to replace the crew on board. said the dead crew member was not the master of the ship and that coronavirus was excluded from the Lloyd’s List Intelligence data shows that the Hong causes of death by local medical experts after Kong-flagged vessel remained at Valparaiso diagnosis. anchorage as of today. It left Guayaquil, Ecuador on March 18 and the previous port it called at was “The real cause of his death is still pending autopsy Salvaverry in Peru. results, but it is not coronavirus. And the vessel has resumed its journey after the rest of the crew tested Meanwhile, a master on Cosco Shipping dry bulker, negative for the virus.” Feng De Hai, was said to have died from the illness at Bosphorus anchorage, Turkey, according to the According to vessel tracking data from Lloyd’s List local shipping agency Tribeca, which cited the local Intelligence, the Hong Kong-flagged 63,356 dwt dry sanitary office. bulker left Turkey’s Istanbul anchorage on March 28. It was due to arrive in Dneprobugsky in Ukraine “The vessel was immediately quarantined by the on May 29. sanitary office and the body of the deceased landed ashore for further delivery to his family,” Tribeca These incidents come after several seafarers were said in an email to customers. found to have contracted the virus on a Maersk containership at the port of Ningbo-Zhoushan last However, a spokesperson for the owner told Lloyd’s week. Lockdown brings Indian subcontinent ship scrapping to a halt THE demolition market on the Indian subcontinent Meanwhile, Pakistan announced last week that all has come to a standstill as countries takes beaching and boarding of vessels at Gadani ship aggressive measures to try to slow the spread of recycling yards would be suspended for a minimum coronavirus. period of four weeks and thereafter pending a further order. Cash buyers are bearing the brunt of this lockdown, although the pall of gloom and uncertainty also Shortly, after the declarations of closures in pervades in all the subcontinent recycling locations Pakistan and India, Bangladesh issued similar — India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. orders for a 14 -day lockdown and almost all locations are likely to extend these emergency In India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has measures further, if no significant signs of tackling ordered the country’s entire population of the the virus are realised. country into a three-week home quarantine. GMS said in a note: “Notwithstanding, given that All domestic and international flights out of India the number of virus cases have only just started to have also been suspended and non-essential take off in the subcontinent, it may still be a while industries such as ship recycling have been ordered before we see this market open up again on any to shut, resulting in all ships that are due to enter non-essential industries and the period of Alang being denied entry for the time being, quarantine will likely extend even further in the according to cash buyer GMS. weeks ahead.” In India, all ships that are scheduled to arrive but In relation to market conditions, it is no surprise yet to beach have been ordered to halt before that there is a lack of activity. However, there entering port limits. remains interest from some buyers to acquire tonnage, shipbroker Clarkson Platou Hellas noted.