Parked Ships (1 Viewer)

Shipping is a perpetual cycle of boom/bust. 2001 through early 2008 was a boom. Since then, bust. Rates go up, owners build ships to chase the higher rates, eventually there is an overcapacity of vessels and rates start to fall. If you combine the natural downslide in the market with a major economic shock, it makes it that much worse, and you get what we have now, where rates collapse to the point it makes more sense to tie up.

Check the 5 year version of this chart, showing rates for dry cargo ships.

<script src="http://charts.wikinvest.com/wikinvest/wikichart/javascript/scripts.php" type="text/javascript"></script><div id="wikichartContainer_59A3EDCB-B008-2684-7BDC-C87C873E8866"><div id="wikichartContainer_59A3EDCB-B008-2684-7BDC-C87C873E8866_noFlash" style="width:400px; display:none;"><a href="http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/"><img src="http://cdn.wikinvest.com/wikinvest/images/adobe_flash_logo.gif" alt="Flash" style="border-width: 0px;"/><br/>Flash Player 9 or higher is required to view the chart<br/><strong>Click here to download Flash Player now</strong></a></div></div><script type="text/javascript">if (typeof(embedWikichart) != "undefined") {embedWikichart("http://charts.wikinvest.com/WikiChartMini.swf","wikichartContainer_59A3EDCB-B008-2684-7BDC-C87C873E8866","400","400",{"ticker":"INDEX:BALDRY","rollingDate":"5 days","showNewsIcons":"true"},{});}</script><div style="font-size:9px;text-align:right;width:400px;font-family:Verdana"><a href="http://www.wikinvest.com/chart/INDEX:BALDRY" style="text-decoration:underline; color:#0000ee;">View the full BALDRY chart</a> at <a href="http://www.wikinvest.com/">Wikinvest</a></div>


Drive down to Morgan City or Golden Meadow and you'll see acres of idle boats and barges.

Most folks have no idea when activity will pick back up - only that it doesnt appear to be any time soon.
 
Last edited:
Wow, thats a fascinating find. I have read stories in the past couple of months of ships full of oil sitting at anchor waiting for the price of oil to hit a high before they are willing to unload as another way both oil producers (OPEC) and oil/gas manufactors (EXXON, SHELL et all) can maniuplate the oil markets to maximize profits.

I'm just speculating here, but i wonder if this is a sympotom of the larger problem with global trade. Economics tells us that open and free trade benefits both parties, be know in reality thats not true. Global trade is in fact unfair trade due to the dispairities of working, manufacturing and economic conditions between both countries for the most part.
 
I'll give you an update next week... I will be offshore for 5 days and can tell you how many we see. Last quarter we only 2 oil tankers in the "LOOP" anchorage previous quarter their were 6.

According to that map of LA I should be able to see a whole bunch.
 
This just occurred to me. Using this data set provided at Vessel tracker which says real time tracking and another database of US licensed vessels (which is public knowledge) on net you can figure out what possible cargo the moving ships have. This can be used by a terrorist or pirate to attack the vessel.

It seems like this is a technology/data set which should be available only to licensed users.

cg #/vessel name search http://www.st.nmfs.noaa.gov/st1/CoastGuard/VesselByName.html

ex.. Carley T located off of texas is a supply ship
http://www.st.nmfs.noaa.gov/pls/webpls/cgv_pkg.vessel_name_list

So another aspect may be that these are ships awaiting loading or unloading and not a "parked ship". So honestly this may be one of those situations where the picture is what it is and you can not extrapolate "anchored vessels to conclusions on the economic situation. All of the ships I searched for in the GOM where supply ships or towing. No tankers/cargo.
 
Last edited:

Create an account or login to comment

You must be a member in order to leave a comment

Create account

Create an account on our community. It's easy!

Log in

Already have an account? Log in here.

Users who are viewing this thread

    Back
    Top Bottom