It has been another active week and generally speaking it is the same selection of buyers chasing after the limited number of ships that are currently available. Competition for modern panamax and supramax tonnage remains stiff and as such, decisive action is required early on in order to successfully acquire ships at the moment. Greek buying interest remains strong and indeed they are reported to be behind the majority of the deals we can report this week. We understand that the Economou-co...

Policymakers have significant impact on the economy and the dry bulk shipping industry. Thus, understanding what policymakers may do is an important part of investing. One such branch of tools that policymakers can use to direct economic growth is called monetary policy. Monetary policy engages in the practice of altering the availability of money circulating in the economy, which also affects interest rates. When more money is available and interest rates fall, banks can make more loans and p...

A new resolution on energy-efficiency regulation of ships was adopted at the 65th session of the Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), held from May 13 to 17 in London. At the MEPC65, a MEPC Resolution was newly adopted on ‘Promotion of Technical Co-operation and Transfer of Technology’ to improve energy efficiency of ships and the committee decided to reform the estimate of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for international shipping i...

Greece's Paragon Shipping Inc. obtains a $69-million credit facility with China Development Bank to partially finance its two 4,800 TEU containerships currently under construction. The two container ships on order are expected to be delivered in the second quarter of 2014, and the company has granted an option to its subsidiary, Box Ships Inc., until its initial public offering in 2011, to acquire the vessels at any time prior to their delivery to Paragon Shipping. The CDB Credit Facility, w...