Bimco's expectations for 2018
The International Maritime and Baltic Council (Bimco), the world's major maritime international association, recently published "Reflections 2018", its annual analysis on maritime transport.
In his introduction, president Anastasios Papagiannopoulos highlights the need for the maritime sector to maintain its proactivity on the reduction of CO2 emissions. With the 2020 entry into force of the global limit of 0.5% sulphur content in marine fuels, Bimco continues to be sceptical about whether refineries will be able to cover the sector's demand for low-sulphur fuel.
For containerships, the increase in demand combined with limited growth of the fleet made it possible to reduce market volatility and increase freight rates in 2017.
Productivity: container port traffic increased by 7.7% compared to 2016. Newbuilds: contracts were signed for 20 new vessels with capacities exceeding 22,000 teu. Faced with these prospects shipowners should continue to implement their cost reduction policies if they want to maintain their profitability. (kd)