SMALL registries from Africa, the Caribbean and Europe have grown their flags at the fastest pace on record during 2024 by taking on expelled tankers that form part of the so-called dark* or parallel fleet shipping oil from Iran, Russia and Venezuela, wrote principal analyst Michelle Wiese Bockmann.

Countries including Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Guyana, Honduras, San Marino and Sierra Leone have embraced business from flag-hopping ships, with more than 100 tankers joining their registries over 2024.

All reflagged after leaving Panama, Liberia, Gabon, Cook Islands and Palau after being directly sanctioned, or linked to sanctioned entities.

Others left after registries asked about trading, technical or ownership matters, a Lloyd’s List investigation found.

Critical compliance tool compromised by GPS jamming

Compliance managers stretched thin by the rapidly evolving sanctions landscape have a new challenge with which to contend — the increasing unreliability of raw Automatic Identification System data in  conflict zones and high-risk areas because of deliberate global positioning data interference, or GPS jamming, reported maritime risk analyst Bridget Diakun.

The interference with GPS signals, intentional or otherwise, is not a new phenomenon and the subsequent impact to AIS data has been widely reported.

What is new is the prolonged severe disruption of positional data in conflict zones. This includes what compliance professionals would deem high-risk areas, making it impossible to ascertain vessel movements over critical periods of time

Food exporters face major fallout if US dockworkers strike

US importers had the flexibility to frontload cargoes to offset the risk of a strike at US east and Gulf coast ports on October 1; US exporters of containerised agricultural goods did not have that timing flexibility, wrote senior reporter Greg Miller.

Importers of consumer goods can pass along extra freight costs resulting from a strike to consumers. Exporters of containerised agricultural goods have no such ability. If exporters raise their price — or miss their delivery window — they will lose the sale.

“The US east and Gulf coast ports are absolutely critical,” said Peter Friedmann, executive director of the Agriculture Transportation Coalition, a group that represents food and forestry products exporters.

While there are rerouting options, AgTC members “are very worried”, Friedmann told Lloyd’s List in an interview on Friday.

“What I’m getting from around the country is: ‘We don’t know what’s going to happen and this uncertainty is killing us,’.”

VLGC rates’ September spiral continues

Very large gas carriers have lost further ground so far this week and are on pace for a third consecutive week of losses, wrote senior reporter Tomer Raanan.

The Baltic Exchange’s BLPG Index, which averages the daily time charter equivalent earnings assessments on the three main trade lanes and divides them by 10, closed at 1,744 last Thursday, 53% below September 2.

VLGC rates are typically closely linked to the US-Asia propane price arbitrage, a key driver of demand for seaborne transport of liquified petroleum gas from the US Gulf to ports in Asia, and predominantly China.

That arbitrage narrowed dramatically in the beginning of the year when the US went through a cold spell and domestic propane demand — and prices — increased, which in turn decimated demand for VLGCs.

However, the current slump is taking place as the arbitrage is wider than last year’s average and US exports are up annually.

LNG shipping rates are falling when they should be seasonally rising

LNG carrier spot rates are down double digits month on month, to just a fraction of last year’s levels, reported Greg Miller.

Period charter rates are also down double digits year on year. The seasonal upswing is coming, but some believe it may be muted this winter.

“Since 2010, average LNG shipping spot rates in September have been $22,000 per day higher than in July, with all but three of those years having better numbers in September than July, and the exceptions had numbers that were very close,” said Stifel shipping analyst Ben Nolan in a client note.

“This is beginning to look like one of those exception years, as current spot rate are about $8,000 per day below July levels and there has not been a sign of seasonal uplift yet.