Festive greetings from the Lloyd's List newsdesk

What to watch for today Despite its withdrawal of ownership of 400,000 dwt ships, Vale’s dominance will only continue to grow with the newbuilding capacity backed by the Brazilian mining giant’s COAs accounting for one-third of existing orderbook, based on a Lloyd’s List’s study. The 32 so-called second generation valemax and 37 ‘guaibamax’ vessels [the largest vessel that can call at the Brazilian port of Guaiba, apparently] will carry iron ore from Brazil to mainly China when they start to be delivered by Chinese and South Korean yards from 2018, just as Vale’s S11D project with a nameplate capacity of 90m tonnes per annum gradually ramps up. Maritime companies operating in the European Union will have to disclose their ultimate owners in a publicly available registry, according to a new rules agreed by the bloc’s authorities, adding to regulatory efforts to stamp out money laundering and corruption involving EU companies. Markets Jefferies is ringing the bell for a prosperous 2018 for LNG carriers and product tankers, as Randy Giveans assumes the lead shipping analyst role at the investment bank. Mr Giveans sees that “For the first time in at least 10 years, we expect capacity shortages”.  He believes that demand growth will outpace supply growth across all segments of the industry with LNG and product tanker owners poised to be the biggest winners.  Global demand for coal is undergoing a major change as lower gas prices, a surge in renewables and energy efficiency improvements put a dent in consumption patterns. But there is a major transformation under way in India’s coal industry, which is likely to provide opportunities for dry cargo shipping, although a shift in seaborne trade patterns is expected. The aframax tanker market will remain challenging next year, with downward pressure likely on freight rates, shipbroker Gibsons says in its latest weekly report. Several factors, including a decline in Russian crude exports from the Baltic and the Black Sea ports and the large number of newbuilding deliveries, will lead to a deterioration in market fundamentals.  Reduced UK exports after the closure of Forties pipeline for repairs have hurt aframax tanker demand, while suezmax owners barely escaped from a strike by a key Nigerian oil workers' union. In contrast to earlier expectation of some analysts, the Forties Pipeline System’s outage has turned out to be bearish for freight rates, as INEOS declared force majeure on crude supply and reduced operating rate at the 210,000-barrel-per-day Grangemounth refinery.