Nordea Bank aims to increase shipping finance activities to the growing liquefied natural gas (LNG)industry, executives at one of the world’s biggest shipping financiers said.Life comes at you fast. Two days before the above Reuters had this story via gCaptain, Dec. 4:
China’s crackdown on pollution and its growing demand for more environmentally friendly sources of power, such as LNG, are boosting demand for ships to transport the fuel.
“We would like to expand the portfolio and there are certain segments that we would like to expand in. One of them is on the LNG side,” Geir Atle Lerkerod, Nordea’s head of shipping for the Nordic region, told Reuters.
“We see there is an underlying strong demand over time and we see that going forward as well,” he said on the sidelines of the Nordic bank’s investor event in London this week.
LNG shipping officials at the event expected strong markets for the next two years. But they said that, with 40 to 50 LNG ships on order, a further build up of vessels through new ordering could undermine business prospects...MORE
Rising Ship Supply Helps Ease LNG Charter Rates
Inflated spot charter rates for liquefied natural gas (LNG) tankers are easing as more ships becoming available, which could help increase LNG trade if Asian demand rises in coming months.That's the funny thing about ships, they tend to move to where the money is.
LNG charter rates are a key component of spot LNG trade, dictating the way the super-cooled gas is transported. Charter rates usually follow the price of LNG, which has fallen since September due to sluggish demand from Asian buyers.
Rates have remained high for most of this year, hitting around $195,000 last month.
Not many spot Atlantic cargoes have travelled east in recent months due to inflated shipping rates, with some companies having to arrange cargo swaps to reduce costs.
But as more vessels become available for spot charters, rates have dropped to around $160,000 per day at the end of November, shipbrokers told Reuters. One source said the spot rate for a modern vessel reached $140,000 per day on Tuesday.
Four ships became open on Monday for December charter, one industry source said, while another predicted that overall up to 10 will become available for charter this month, with more coming to the market after floating cargoes are unloaded....MORE
On a more positive note, last week the temperature north of Harbin China got to -40° (both C and F)
