Dry Bulk Shipping VIII

[lamborghini]

China should be allowed to invest here - Albanese

Rio Tinto has moved to inject some competitive tension into BHP Billiton's hostile $126 billion takeover bid by urging the Australian Government to welcome more Chinese investment in the sector.

The call by Rio's managing director, Tom Albanese, follows recent Government bans and limitations on Chinese investment in the iron ore sector, which have raised the prospect that a Chinese counter to the BHP offer would not gain clearance by Canberra.

Canberra recently gave the state-owned Chinese aluminium group Chinalco approval to increase its Rio stake from 9 per cent to 11 per cent if it so desired.

But when taken with other foreign investment decisions, the implication was that approval to move beyond 14.9 per cent might not be forthcoming.

While that suits BHP with its bid, Rio would have preferred the potential for a Chinalco-led Chinese challenge to BHP's bid to have remained afoot.

Speaking to the Melbourne Mining Club, Mr Albanese said that an "alarmist" view was circulating in business and political circles that Australia had much to fear from consolidation....
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[lamborghini]

George Economou, Chairman and CEO of DryShips, Sets the record straight Interview with Barry Parker of BDP1 Connect on Strategic Expansion with the Addition of 9 Capesize Vessels and 2 Drillships.

Barry Parker: You just announced two major asset contributions to DryShips. Let’s start with the Cape vessels. Several people criticized the valuation for this acquisition inferring that it was on the rich side. George Economou: I would like to clarify a point that might have been overlooked in yesterday’s presentation. DryShips paid the sellers for their equity in these nine Capes with 19.4 million of new shares of DryShips. This is an all stock deal for DryShips, there is no cash
consideration to be paid since the sellers including myself got a fixed number of shares, 19.4million, not cash.

The number of shares the seller gets does not adjust with the actual share
price at the time of closing. The transaction value that was mentioned in the presentation illustrates purely a theoretical data point and was based on the previous day’s closing price.....Read More

[lamborghini]

Navios Maritime Holdings Inc. Takes Delivery of Navios Ulysses; Commences 5-year Time Charter at $31,281 Net Daily Rate

PIRAEUS, Greece, October 13, 2008-- Navios Maritime Holdings Inc. (NM) took delivery of the Navios Ulysses, a 2007-built, 55,728 dwt Ultra Handymax vessel. The Navios Ulysses commenced a five-year time charter at a net daily rate of $31,281 "We are pleased with the delivery and long-term employment of the Navios Ulysses,” said Ms. Angeliki Frangou, Chairman and CEO of Navios Holdings. “The rate for this charter is significantly higher than the current rate for Ultra Handymaxes, and we believe this charter demonstrates the strength of our business model.”

[lamborghini]

From Random Rogers Blog .. Kind of difficult to see because the drop is so vertical but the BDI shows being more than 5000 points below its 200 DMA.

Actually I just saw a quote on CNBC Asia that at showed BDI down another 10% from where it is on the chart.

I'm not sure what to conclude but it clearly reveals how crazy the last couple of months have been.

[lamborghini]

By Alaric Nightingale and Chan Sue Ling

Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Commodity shipping rates plunged to the lowest in more than five years as a lack of trade finance left cargoes stranded and the global economic slowdown limited raw material demand.

Traders are finding it harder to get letters of credit that guarantee payments for goods, shipping executives said. Together with a slowdown in trade, that has contributed to this year's 82 percent drop in shipping costs for grain, coal and other commodities. Rates are so low that Zodiac Maritime Agencies Ltd., the line managed by Israel's billionaire Ofer family, announced today it may idle 20 of its largest ships.

``Letters of credit and the credit lines for trade currently are frozen,'' Khalid Hashim, managing director of Precious Shipping Pcl, Thailand's second-largest shipping company, said in Singapore yesterday. ``Nothing is moving because the trader doesn't want to take the risk of putting cargo on the boat and finding that nobody can pay.'' Read >>