Special Reports

Only months before the effective date of IMO 2020, there are a surprising number of shipping industry participants who believe that getting customers to pay for increased bunker costs will be smooth sailing. However, the reality may prove to be more complicated. This report explores how a lack of negotiating power and imperfect bunker cost recovery mechanisms could turn this shadow on the horizon into a dangerous storm for the shipping industry.

The phenomenal growth in global LNG trade flows has been underpinned by a vast fleet of LNG carriers that numbers just shy of 500 vessels. The fleet has done for LNG, what container ships have done for manufactured products like the iPhone. It has made it possible for gas producers to propagate LNG as a global fuel and a global commodity. The global LNG fleet will grow at its fastest rate ever in 2018, with newer and better technologies. But will this be enough to absorb the vast amount of new LNG supply coming next year, mainly from the US, and still keep freight rates at affordable levels?

Blockchain could help make commodity trading simpler, faster and cheaper. Pilot projects and trials are popping up around the world, but real world uses are rare so far. Companies will have to tackle issues such as speed, scale, cost, privacy and liability to make using blockchain viable. This special report from S&P Global Platts explains the technology, examines the projects, and looks at the challenges and opportunities ahead as blockchain enters a critical development phase.

The container market has seen a series of public -- and often heated -- arguments this year over the sharp rise in bunker prices and who should foot the bill. S&P Global Platts container market editor Andrew Scorer and Jack Jordan and Paul Hickin from the oil news team analyze the changing landscape of supply chain logistics, and how the International Maritime Organization's lower marine fuels sulfur cap in 2020 is set to complicate the situation even further.