To date this year, Marcon has brokered the sale of 119 vessels and barges, fixed one charter and we expect to report an additional six sales and charters within the next 60 days.

What will you be paying for fuel next week, next month or by the end of this year?

With the current economic crisis, most of us have gone two steps backwards from where we were in 2008.

As the economy begins its slow recovery, markets in all maritime sectors and the players themselves will change.

The United States is now in the sixteenth month of this recession, although it seems longer.

I have not been looking forward to writing this article, postponing it until the very last day before having to submit the newsletter to the printer in hopes I could think of something brilliant to say.

Barges, Barges, Barges and More Barges. Although most of our market reports and articles over the last few years have concentrated on tugs - most tugs worldwide would be laid up without a barge to tow or push.

Whilst researching for an interesting quote along the lines of "We live in interesting times" to kick off this article, I came across the correct definition on Wikipedia which I thought was perhaps rather more apt than I initially anticipated.

The news media is all buzzing with headlines about inflation, as if it is something just discovered.

At no time in its 170-year history has the global towage industry experienced a demand for new tonnage to match that currently being experienced by tug owners and builders alike.

Marcon International, Inc. has sold or chartered 42 vessels so far this year from January through August 2007.

I postponed putting this article together, looking for any excuse to move on to another project - or inventing one if I did not have a project handy. The first hurdle was the title. I had no problem with "2007". That was easy, since I want to use this article to gather my own thoughts together and figure out what we here at Marcon can expect in 2007 and 2008.