Where is liner shipping heading?

 
It could be an industry with mega-vessels or a monopoly

THERE are two incompatible but widespread views on today's liner shipping industry. One is that it is a highly efficient money-making machine that is increasingly dominated by a few players, to the detriment of cargo owners and, ultimately, consumers - PHOTO: BLOOMBERG

 

THERE are two incompatible but widespread views on today's liner shipping industry. One is that it is a highly efficient money-making machine that is increasingly dominated by a few players, to the

detriment of cargo owners and, ultimately, consumers. The other is that, despite continual efficiency gains, unregulated competition and resulting overcapacity prevent the

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China Steel Game Changer ‘Good News’ Says World’s Biggest Mill

 

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ArcelorMittal (MT), the world’s largest steelmaker, welcomed the potential removal of a near 10-year block on overseas takeovers in China’s steel industry.

ArcelorMittal is one of the few foreign steelmills with investments in China since the ban on overseas control was imposed in 2005. The world’s top producer and consumer is considering scrapping the ban which may be a catalyst for global mills to revive a push into China’s $423 billion steel sector where demand is seven times greater than in the U.S., the next biggest market.

“It’s good news that the government is moving forward on reforms and liberalization on foreign investment,” Lakshmi Mittal, the billionaire chief executive officer of ArcelorMittal, said in an interview

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Vale Proves Too Rich for Barclays on Iron’s 30% Plummet

By Juan Pablo Spinetto and Julia LeiteJun 9, 2014 8:46 PM GMT+0200

The biggest drop in iron-ore prices in five years is a signal to Barclays Plc and Seaport Group thatVale SA (VALE5)’s outperformance in the bond market is about to end.

The $2.25 billion of bonds due 2022 returned 9 percent in the past six months, exceeding the 7.4 percent average gain for notes from emerging-market mining companies with investment-grade ratings. The Vale bonds yield 4.06 percent, the least relative to similar securities from London-based Rio Tinto Group since September, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

Vale, which gets about 95 percent of earningsfrom its ferrous business, posted a bigger-than-forecast drop in first-quarter profit after selling its ore for 25 percent less than the

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Markets Live: Iron ore, Iraq sparks sell-off

 

Date
June 13,  2014

Patrick Commins

Miners led the market lower on a slumping iron ore price, while  conflict in Iraq spooked investors but pushed gold, energy stocks and the Aussie  higher.

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4:57pm: That’s it for Markets Live today.

Thanks for reading and your comments.

You can read a wrap-up of the action on the markets

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Iraqi Oil Sailing in Circles

Bloomberg

Brad Hoppmann | June 13, 2014

What does a ship bound for nowhere have to do with the oily, violent mess in Iraq? This particular ship is a key player — and it’s currently idling off the coast of Morocco. Today I’ll tell you why.

The ship’s name is United Leadership. Ironically, “united leadership” is exactly what Iraq is missing this week.

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The map above is more legible than the one I ran yesterday. Bloomberg helpfully color-coded the territory controlled by Sunni Arab, Shia Arab ad Sunni Kurd forces, along with oil fields and pipelines.

Iraq’s messy political situation is not improving. The competing groups have their own internal tensions. We may well see Iraq break up into three or more rival governments in the next few weeks.

If

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