“You get a Fredriksen company with its remaining crude tankers and product tanker fleet plus the 12.8% ownership in Avance Gas for free.”

Danske Bank’s Bjorn Kristian Roed realises that the best things in life can be free, especially when it comes to shipping investments.

(Capesize cash machine)

“Money isn’t everything.”

You can tell that to the birds and bees. John Banaszkiewicz knows there is more to life than forward freight agreements...football.

(Banaszkiewicz moves up from Championship to Premiership)

“The debtors have failed, or failed timely, to comply with various orders of this court. Accordingly... this court finds that the appointment of a ‘responsible person’ for all the debtors is appropriate under all the circumstances.”

Attorney, Evan Flaschen, makes the case that he should be the chosen one to oversee liquidation of TMT assets.

(Lawyers launch bid to oversee affairs of TMT)

“There have been cases where the professionals put money into a company on the assumption that its lenders are going to continue in an amend-and-extend mode. But we seem to be past that now, especially in cases where bank debt has been bought up by distressed investors who are not going to be so co-operative. So even the professionals can get caught on the wrong side of that.”

CRT Capital’s David Epstein puzzles the contradiction of distressed company shares trading well above what appears to be a rational level.

(Equity analysts puzzled by share price behaviour)

“We are not going to stop flying around the world to do our jobs, to go on holidays or drive our cars. So we believe in products tankers and there will always be a need them [for them] even with a big orderbook which I think will be for replacement for quite a lot of old ships.”

The outlook is less than green according to Hafnia Management's Anders Engholm who appears to be an unreconstructed believer in the true fundamentals of the products market.

(Products story not over)

“If you do five fixtures a day, you are likely to get 80% right. If you do one a week, you are likely to get four out of five wrong.”

Well we all know that practice makes perfect. Maybe it is time for Lauritzen Bulkers president, Peter Borup, to spend 10,000 hours upping his capesize game

(J Lauritzen again ponders sale of former STX Pan Ocean capes)

“Ultimately, your ability to service the commodity mover is heavily contingent upon fleet quality.”

Jason Klopfer did not get to be Navig8's commercial director without deep market insights.

(Navig8 boosts VLCC count with two DK Maritime units)

“I had these 10-year-old steam ships logged at an estimated value of $100m to $105m prior to this sale.”

Broker turned LNG shipping consultant, Keith Bainbridge, struggles to make sense of a $165m per vessel price for steam turbine gas carriers that will be almost worthless in six years time.

(LNG space needs good dose of common sense)

“There is continued overcapacity and strong competition both between marine insurers and, not least, in the broker markets. This puts downward pressure on rates. A good year for reinsurers adds to this pressure.”

But the Norwegian Hull Club has had a rather good year and directors are up for further growth.

(Norwegian Hull Club primed for portfolio diversification)

“Whatever third party or shareholder we are working with, it will not change the attitude to the way we are operating. By acting commercially we are looking for the things the industry needs and providing research for what the industry needs in the future.”

RINA’s Ugo Salerno backs the commercial approach...but isn’t that one of the things that critics of the classification society regard as a problem.

(Rina targets growth with equity offer to investors)

“If they [the oil companies] control the ship, the largest hard-dollar object at the table, then they can efficiently switch on and off crews to adapt to all the facets of what they need to do across their enterprise, so they are not just stuck changing out the boat all the time.”

Todd Hornbeck peers into his offshore crystal ball and foresees an on-off future for crews.

(Opportunity opens for Hornbeck Offshore amid US market pause)

“If we are able to remain globally competitive and attract the capital needed to develop those projects, we have to reduce the cost of doing business.”

Australian E&P industry spokesman, David Byers, warns with hand wringing regret that paying offshore laundry workers and cooks more than $300,000 a year is a threat to international competitiveness.

“Neither too conservative nor too optimistic.”

GulfMark’s Quintin Kneen embraces the Goldilocks principle, but that does not hold him back from making an upbeat pitch on the outlook for the offshore vessel market.

(Record-breaker GulfMark tries to ease drilling sector concerns)