Quotes of the week

We take a look at what was said in the market in the past week.

Big John' s comments went down badly in Somalia where pirates can now expect reduced ransoms.

“I’m negative to shipping. I’ve been that for a while.”

Shipping stalwart John Fredriksen questions whether or not the rest of us are just wasting our time.

(JF tips tanker trouble.)

“Tanker rates, I don’t have much belief in.”

Fredriksen – he of tanker companies Frontline, Knightsbridge, Independent Tankers and Sea Tankers Management fame – is a little down on tankers. too.

(JF tips tanker trouble.)

“Offshore will come for sure, which will be fantastic for Seadrill.”

Ah, we knew there had to be method in the madness for Big John – of Seadrill, Scorpion and Deep Sea Supply fame.

(JF tips tanker trouble.)

“We have what I would consider a natural turnover.”

Torm boss Jacob Meldgaard as the Dane puts a new bulker chief in place after ‘naturally’ shedding a large number of staff to rival outfits.

(Torm gets new bulker boss.)

This crew took the term 'cold lay-up' to extremes.

“We believe it makes more sense to wait and take some capacity out of the market. So slow your ships down, do some maintenance work and maybe let the crew do some fishing instead. That will help the market for sure.”

Frontline CEO Jens Martin Jensen advocates a bit more R&R for crews in the current tanker downturn.

(‘Contango coming back’.)

"The board of directors of Eitzen Maritime Services ASA has agreed with Annette Malm Justad that she will resign as CEO of the company.”

That’s it? No ‘thank you’ or nothing after four years at the helm? Oh dear.

Eitzen Maritime Services’ CEO Annette Malm Justad “agrees” to step down with Axel Eitzen taking the hot seat.

(Malm Justad out of EMS.)

“For Maersk Line, slow steaming is here to stay because it remains a win-win-win situation. It is better for our customers, better for the environment and better for our business.”

Maersk Line is winning so much he said it thrice! Chief executive Eivind Kolding on the trinity of winners from slow steaming.

“If ships go slower, then sails may be a good idea.”

Ralf Plump of Germanischer Lloyd seems to be proposing a return to clippers.

'I think our friend has become, shall we say, a little bit of an inconvenience.'

“I don’t think people liked this letter and he was signalled as being a possible threat.”

Francois Ameli, a French lawyer acting for Vitaly Arkhangelsky as the Oslo Marine Group chief goes into virtual exile.

“ETA’s reputation has suffered of late. We would further advise close monitoring of the subject’s payment behaviour and any future business arrangements.”

Emma Kuhne, analyst at credit advisory Dynamar, gives people in shipping a heads-up on troubled Emirates Trading Agency.

“Further affiant sayeth naught.”

LeRoy Lambert, maritime lawyer and Standard Club rep, remaineth tight-lipped on reports ye-olde Chile’s CCNI is out of the financial quagmire.

“It is not so much that they were questioning the legal grounds of the dispute but their hands were tied during talks with their bank. It was not an easy time for them.”

Reederei Claus-Peter Offen as hotter boxship markets lead to a warming of relations with CMA CGM and cooling of an arbitration proceeding.

“People don’t like profit warnings. They say ‘bad news, don’t like that’, we’re going to punish you and push the market price down. We are in the middle of a febrile very unforgiving market.”

Yip, nothing beats a good old profit warning to keep your share price afloat.

John Rowe, CEO of P&I club manager Charles Taylor which has seen its share price plummet on the back of a profit warning.

“In virtually every sector you are getting bigger ships as you optimize the envelope.”

Lloyd’s Register (LR) marine director Tom Boardley sees vessels getting larger on paper.

'Shipping's like a box of chocolates: you don't realise you've piled on the tonnage until it's too late.'

“If you lift the lid and look in the box you would see many situations in the industry today. Some very positive, some really quite problematic.”

Clarkson Research chief Martin Stopford reckons the shipping world is a lot like a box of chocolates.

“They have been a major beneficiary of financial-leasing measures, effectively a holiday to sort themselves out.”

Stopford thinks lower interest payments were effectively a honeymoon period for brooding owners.

“When rules change, you always see the best survive. Copy and paste is no longer possible. You have to do something new.”

Fridtjof Rohde of GL’s FutureShip division on optimizing vessels’ performance without being to cliquey.

“We invested money, travelled to several new countries and were able to win 100 new clients. In such a situation, you have to be aggressive.”

Eckehardt Bauer, founder of German ship spares company Mares Shipping, has been grabbing new customers by the scruff of the neck.

“We made our mistakes because we believed it ourselves. We were responsible for our own crisis and I was responsible for the crisis at Lloyd Fonds.”

Lesson for Lloyd Fonds boss Torsten Teichert: never believe in yourself.

'Help me help you!'

“It can’t be fully our problem to help you through the crisis. You do something, we do something.”

Werner Weimann of Deutsche Schiffsbank says banks were there to offer a helping hand...but only up to a point.

“Harassment and bullying at sea should never be tolerated.”

Damn straight: leave that sort of thing ashore.

Nautilus general secretary Mark Dickinson as the union calls for an investigation in to the death of a female cadet on a UK-flagged boxship.

"It is totally unacceptable. We have a zero-tolerance policy for alcohol on our ships."

Wilson spokesman Jon Are Gummedal after two Russian crew of the Norwegian’s Wilson Rhine were allegedly found over the limit following a near-grounding off Marstein.

Seems the crew members had a low tolerance, too.

(Crew ‘drunk’ on Wilson ship.)

“If we are able to find the vessel, then action would be immediately initiated.”

India’s environment minister Aleixo Sequeira is left spitting bullets after an unidentified ‘rogue ship’ dumped oil which washed ashore on Goa’s beaches.

(‘Rogue ship’ in Goa spill.)

'Nuts to this, I'm going for a kip.'

“I have raised this with the chief executive but he is not helpful. He is very evasive and probably just wants to see out his remaining two years with no major issues.”

Wah Kwong chief George Chou gives Hong Kong’s minister for housing and shipping (slightly bizarre mix) a bit of a dressing down.

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