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 The downward spiral underway in global commodity shipping rates won't improve much until 2014, when a better balance between new capacity and demand should clear the decks for a modest recovery, according to CIMB research in Hong Kong. In spite of record ship deliveries in 2011, the number of cargo vessels under construction is equivalent to about one-third of the existing global fleet, CIMB's Hong Kong-based analysts said on Monday.
Add Comment  The Costa Concordia cruise ship will take up to 10 months to removed from Italy's coast, according to officials, as rough seas off the Tuscan coast forced the suspension of recovery operations.Officials called off both the start of operations to remove of 500,000 gallons of fuel and the search for people still missing after determining the Costa Concordia had moved an inch and a half over six hours, coupled with waves of more than three feet.
 IMO Secretary-General Koji Sekimizu, speaking at the opening of the Sub-Committee on Bulk Liquids and Gases (BLG) today (30 January 2012), stated that IMO is the right international body to deal with safety of passenger ships and, in particular, a safety review after the Costa Concordia accident.
 A new standard clause to deal with removal of marine growth caused by vessels lying idle over a prolonged period is currently being developed by BIMCO. The aim is to draft a clause that makes a fair apportionment of costs and responsibilities in the event a vessel spends a disproportionate amount of time idle while awaiting charterers’ orders.Over the past years vessels have been prone to encounter longer periods of inactivity, partly as a consequence of a decrease in goods to be transported as well as the current over-supply of trading vessels.
 Most ships involved in reported cases of sanctions-busting or illicit transfers of arms, drugs and equipment that could be used in the development of missiles and weapons of mass destruction are owned by companies based in the world's richest countries, according to the first comprehensive study of maritime trafficking.The ships are primarily commercial lines based in Germany, Greece and the US, according to the report, released on Monday by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
 The shipbuilding sector will be hit hard this year as financially squeezed European ship owners are expected to cut back or cancel orders amid the eurozone debt crisis.Shipbuilding market research firm Clarksons said this year’s orders would shrink by 9.7 percent compared to last year due to concerns that the European financial woes will spread and other global uncertainties.
 The Costa Concordia crew is suing the Carnival Corp. for at least $100 million following the Jan. 13 disaster that has left the cruise ship sinking off the coast of the Italian island of Giglio.A lawsuit for at least $100 million has been filed in federal court in response to the Costa Concordia crash.
 Frank Dunne, a partner at law firm Watson Farley & Williams LLP, which has the largest global shipping and vessel-finance practice, comments on how banks are handling a decline in ship prices.He spoke at a conference in London today. “The more problems the banks have, the less willing they are to recognize the problems that the shipowners have.
 European shipowners will increasingly seek bankruptcy protection in the U.S. in 2012 as they attempt to retain control of their fleets while negotiating with lenders, said law firm Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP. Filing for Chapter 11 protection in U.S. courts means no receivers are appointed to run a company and reaching agreement with banks is easier, Gregory Petrick, a partner at the firm, said at a conference in London today.
 Shipping lines are running out of options to stop losses as sailing speeds reach their lower limit, exhausting a solution that helped restore profitability in 2010.The global container fleet is now cruising near record-low speeds after slowing 11 percent from August when the freight rate market collapsed, according to data compiled by Bloomberg and Lloyd’s Register.
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