The Irish Maritime Development Office brought together the Irish maritime industry on the 1st of December with a seminar titled “Obstacles and opportunities in global shipping markets”. Over 60 maritime professional were in attendance and the panel of speakers ranged in experience from sfip finance and taxation to coastal bulk and offshore wind/wave vessel support. .
Anthony Gurnee of Seacove Shipping Partners gave an overview of the international ship finance markets. He noted that there are opportunities in the current international environment and that for the foreseeable future at least, cash is king. In his view 2009 saw the bottoming out of demand for shipping, as rates could not fall much further. Starting from such a low level it is likely that there would be a moderate increase in demand during 2010.
Mark Harrison of HC shipping gave a briefing on conditions on the short sea market. He used H.Clarksons’ own short sea index to highlight their opinions on some sectors and where they might go. Their short sea index is based on the weekly average of freight rates for 3/4000 tonne vessels over 5 different European routes. In normal operating conditions there is a predictable seasonal trend, with a high in the winter and a low in the summer. He felt that Q4 2008 marked an end to this seasonal trend with rates falling to a level where operating costs were barely covered. This in turn led to some vessel lay ups and a legacy of uncertainty. He did however, believe that there was still good arguments for investing in smaller vessels given that without them majopr commodity importers would have to rely to a greater extent on road/rail transport which was unlikely to be sustainable in the UK.
Andrew Gregory from Force 3 Offshore gave a presentation on the opportunities in renewable energy. He believes that the potential for the wind energy market is on the same scale as the North Sea oil exploration of the 1970s. He quoted a value for the industry of $130 billion up to the year 2020. The wind energy market is controlled by a number of strong drivers, most visibly governments, with their pledges to integrate renewable energy into their national power supply plans. Wind turbine construction is the most attractive renewable energy from a shipping services point of view, as the technology is at least 5 years ahead of wave and tidal energy and so financial returns are likely be seen soonest from wind energy. He noted that if he was an investor, he would look at wind energy first.
Finally, Jim Healy of KPMG Jim gave a brief overview of where Ireland is in terms of taxation issues. His presentation also covered the existing tax system, updates which occurred in the last year and why Ireland is still as attractive as ever for foreign companies.
If you would like more information, please contact the IMDO on business@imdo.ie
Source: The IMDO, December 2009
