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Last week, I received news from a contact who is friends with one of the biggest billionaire shipping families in the world. He told me they had no ships at sea right now, because operating them meant running at a loss. This weekend, reports are circulating saying much the same thing: The North Atlantic has little or no cargo ships traveling in its waters. Instead, they are anchored. Unmoving. Empty.

Exclusive: Shipping traffic to Syria surges as Russia steps up offensive LONDON/MOSCOW | By Jonathan Saul and Maria Tsvetkova More than 100 cargo vessels have reached Syria in the past few weeks, in the biggest buildup in shipping for over a year as Russia steps up its support for ally President Bashar al-Assad. The ships have arrived directly from Russia, Black Sea ports such as Constantza in Romania as well as from Lebanon and Egypt, according to shipping data, maritime intelligence and international trade sources. They say the cargo includes supplies to bolster the offensive as well as grain and...

An 800 ft. cargo vessel sailing from Jacksonville to San Juan in the vicinity of a major hurricane with 33 crew on board loses power, starts listing, sends a distress signal and goes missing now for four days. Drudge has a link to the story just as a side of other hurricane stories. The story goes largely ignored by the mainstream media. Even Free Republic has taken it down from Breaking and Front Page news. That's 33 souls, 28 of which are Americans, possibly lost at sea or struggling to survive. A major U.S. Coast Guard search and rescue effort...

Tyler Durden 08/23/2015 Three weeks ago, when we last looked at the collapse in trade along what may be the most trafficked route involving China, i.e., from Asia to Northern Europe, we noted that while that particular shipping freight rate Europe had crashed some 23% on just one week, there was some good news: at least the Baltic Dry index was still inexplicably rising, and at last check it was hovering just above 1,100. That is no longer the case, and just as with everything else in recent months, the Baltic Dry dead cat bounce is now over, with the...

Three weeks ago, when we last looked at the collapse in trade along what may be the most trafficked route involving China, i.e., from Asia to Northern Europe, we noted that while that particular shipping freight rate Europe had crashed some 23% on just one week, there was some good news: at least the Baltic Dry index was still inexplicably rising, and at last check it was hovering just above 1,100. That is no longer the case, and just as with everything else in recent months, the Baltic Dry dead cat bounce is now over, with the BDIY topping out...

July 21 2015 Clark Schultz, SA News Editor The Baltic Dry Index rose 4.3% to 1,113 with gains registering for capesize, panamax, and supramax rates. The BDI has doubled since February when a weak market prompted some companies to scrap ships. Shipping rates are still well-below the level from late 2013 to late 2014.(snip)

The Dubai Ports World controversy of 2006 is making a comeback, only this time the Arab principal has actually gained control of the container contract for a major U.S. port. The site is Port Canaveral, near the Kennedy Space Center on Florida’s east coast, which is frequented by U.S. and NATO-ally nuclear submarines. A 35-year contract signed last year and set to go operational next month allows a United Arab Emirates-based company managed by Badr Jafar to operate a cargo terminal managing containers. The UAE has been a major donor to the troubled Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea Clinton Foundation. And...

The game of international power dynamics has just shifted in a major way. It will take a little time for the consequences to be visible to the public eye. But I don’t think it will take that much time. We’re talking months, at most, if not weeks. Iran is getting no pushback from the “international community,” and is moving quickly now.

CNN has learned that U.S. Navy warships will now accompany every U.S.-flagged commercial vessel that passes through the Strait of Hormuz due to concerns that ships from Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps navy could try to seize a U.S. cargo ship. The classified plan was approved by the Pentagon Thursday, according to a senior defense official.

The Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) announced that loading and unloading operations at all 29 West Coast ports would temporarily be suspended this weekend in response to union slowdowns that brought freight movements at the ports to a near standstill. PMA members stated that they cannot afford the almost $1,200 per day cost to employ International Longshore and Warehouse Union members to do little work. After Breitbart broke the story on Thursday that union members of the ILWU planned to “walk out within the week,” the PMA employer group announced they can no longer continue to pay workers the premium pay...

Tyler Durden 01/08/2015 Must be over-supply too, right? Just like oil prices... The Baltic Dry Index - which apparently is only relevant when it is rising - has never been lower at this time of year.(snip)

Just when shippers thought things could not get any worse with the West Coast port labor “slowdown,” dockworkers proved them wrong. The latest tactic employed by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) has been to cease contract negotiations for next 12 days. “We have made it abundantly clear that we believe these negotiations are of the utmost importance and should continue at full strength until the Thanksgiving holiday,” said Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) spokesman Wade Gates. “We are disappointed the Union is not showing the same urgency to resolve the issues between us.” Three weeks after initiating a coordinated...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)PORT CANAVERAL, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35 ORLANDO) - The EOT Spar is a 300-foot-long cargo ship due in Port Canaveral just 17 days after leaving the port of Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone in West Africa. The country has documented 5,235 Ebola cases so far, according to the World Health Organization. The U.S. Coast Guard says federal requirements already in place, as well as self-monitoring by the crew is enough to reduce risk to Central Floridians. The Coast Guard says it is in close communication with the EOT Spar, an American-flagged cargo ship out of Annapolis, Maryland. It's scheduled...

A Russian container ship carrying hundreds of tons of fuel was drifting without power in rough seas off British Columbia's northern coast Friday, a scenario a nearby First Nation community described as its "worst fear." The Canadian Forces' joint rescue coordination center in Victoria said the Russian carrier Simushir lost power late Thursday night off Haida Gwaii, also known as the Queen Charlotte Islands, as it was making its way from Washington state to Russia. Canadian Navy Lt. Paul Penderghast said the ship was drifting nine nautical miles from shore, though he said it was largely maintaining that position. "It...

Researchers based in Norway believe that in around 10 years time cargo ships will have the technology to sail the seas without the need of a captain or crew. Marintek, part of the SINTEF group based in Norway, is one of a number of partners working on developing systems which can operate without the need for humans. The "Seatonomy" project is looking to have ships sailing without human crews in the next 10 to 20 years. The 12 million kroner ($1.9 million) research investment by SINTEF could actually improve ship safety as human error causes more than 75 percent of...

Tyler Durden 08/06/2014 A month ago, a Nicaraguan committee approved Chinese billionaire Wang Jing's project to create The Nicaraguan Canal. With a planned capacity to accommodate ships with loaded displacement of 400,000 tons (notably bigger than The Panama Canal), the proposed 278-kilometer-long canal that will run across the Nicaragua isthmus would probably change the landscape of the world's maritime trade. "The project is the largest infrastructure project ever in the history of man in terms of engineering difficulty, investment scale, workload and its global impact," Wang told reporters, adding that with regard the project's financing, which is around $50 billion,...

Great Lakes ice blocks flow of grain, iron 5/2 - The biggest ice cover on the Great Lakes in decades is backing up shipments of everything from Canadian grain to U.S. iron and steel in one of North America's most important economic regions. The frigid winter and cool spring have hurt companies like Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. and United States Steel Corp, and also hampered efforts to clear an unprecedented buildup of grain and oilseeds in Western Canada. The Great Lakes region accounts for nearly one third of combined Canadian and U.S. output, jobs and exports, according to a report...

​Marine innovation engineering department at Rolls-Royce has presented a draft design of an ocean-going robo-vessel that could enter service within a decade. Experts remain highly skeptical that computers could replace human instincts anytime soon. Rolls-Royce (RR/) Holdings Plc, which started designing autonomous cargo vessels in 2013, have presented in Bloomberg original computer design of crewless cargo ships. The vessels have a distinct difference from all modern ships: they lack any deck housing whatsoever. "The idea of a remote-controlled ship is not new, it has been around for decades, but the difference is the technology now exists,” announced Oskar Levander, head...

LAKE SUPERIOR- November 10th marks the day that the S. S. Edmund Fitzgerald sank on Lake Superior in 1975 with 29 souls on board.

The Baltic tiger of Estonia is the world’s first country to meet all its power needs from shale, with enough left over for neighbours and fuel exports for the shipping industry. “We are the most energy independent country in the European Union, and we will not compromise our energy security. We have a large neighbour,” said Juhan Parts, the economy minister. It is the same story wherever you go across Eastern Europe: the fuel debate comes down to Vladimir Putin’s Russia, and Gazprom’s stranglehold on gas supplies. Global warming inevitably plays second fiddle. “Estonia is not rich enough to experiment...