Shipfinex

The Baltic Capesize Index does not mean the same thing to everyone who reads it. For a technical superintendent it is context. For a charterer it is a negotiating benchmark. For someone sitting on the sale-and-purchase desk, watching the BCI is more like watching a tide gauge than reading a headline. You know roughly where the water was yesterday. You are trying to work out wher...

Ownership and operation are two different things in LNG shipping, and conflating them produces rankings that mislead more than they inform. Nakilat, the Qatari state vehicle, technically owns over 70 LNG carriers through its fleet structure. But Nakilat does not commercially operate most of them. Shell does. MOL does. NYK does. The rankings below reflect who is directing commerc...

The Carbon Intensity Indicator has been operational since January 2023. By 2026, vessels must have achieved an 11% cumulative improvement in CO2 intensity relative to their 2019 baseline. The annual reduction requirement does not pause because freight rates are high, because scrapping is economically unattractive, or because replacement tonnage is not yet available. The ratchet ...

On 22 May 2026, the International Maritime Organization concluded the 111th session of its Maritime Safety Committee in London. One outcome stood apart from the rest: the formal adoption of the International Code of Safety for Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships. The MASS Code takes effect on 1 July 2026. Worth stating early: this is not a framework for ships that do not yet exist...

In February 2026, Belgian special forces rappelled from French military helicopters onto a tanker in the North Sea. The ship, the Ethera, was Guinea-registered and heading back toward Russia. Belgian authorities suspected it was part of the shadow fleet. A criminal investigation was launched, the vessel escorted to Zeebrugge, and it was later confirmed the ship had been sailing ...