LMIU is part of Informa PLC, the world’s leading provider of published and electronic maritime information products. Informa is the publisher of Lloyd’s List and other maritime, transport, insurance, commodities, energy, law and finance journals and on-line products. LMIU’s products and services are powered by the group’s integrated Shipping Information Database, containing details of some 100,000 merchant ships and capturing over 3.6 million ship movements a year at over 4,000 ports/locations worldwide. LMIU’s databases — which also encompass information on ship ownership structures, port details, newbuildings, charter fixtures, casualties, arrests and detentions — provide the world’s business and maritime community with the most comprehensive, up-to-date and validated maritime intelligence available from a single source.

Underpinning Lloyd’s MIU is a 70-strong team of researchers, analysts and developers who receive, process, validate and analyze daily information supplied exclusively by the global Lloyd’s Agency system.

TANKERS AND APEX
LMIU’s portfolio includes the Analysis of Petroleum Exports service (APEX), which monitors oil-export liftings and import discharges by individual vessel and port. The service records port-to-port movements of laden crude oil and products tankers, used by governments, international institutions and the shipping and oil industries to monitor the supply side of the market, analyze trends and provide competitor intelligence.

By utilizing the near-real-time global tracking capabilities of LMIU’s databases, APEX analysts are able to identify and quantify laden voyages to provide timely, independent and empirically based analysis of oil exports and imports by vessel, port, country, region, trade route and charterer. This methodology allows APEX to identify and quantify market trends before other sources, which are less timely, incomplete or sometimes deliberately misleading. 

In response to market demand for more up-to-date real-time market intelligence on oil liftings, APEX has developed new processes to provide weekly analysis and reports on regional exports of crude oil still “on the water” en route to final destinations. By analyzing data on the current deployment of the global tanker fleet, which is exclusive to LMIU, APEX analysts have developed a robust and validated methodology that is able to project the relative volume and timelines of oil heading towards consumer markets.

The end result is an operation that provides the market with a reliable estimate of how much crude oil is heading towards consumer markets, when it is likely to hit, and how much has come in already. This information is exclusive to Lloyd’s Marine Intelligence Unit, and knowledge of its own information processes is of paramount importance in transforming the raw data into figures that can actually be taken seriously.

LMIU also offers custom-made database services consultancy on maritime economics, trade forecasting, ship and fleet planning, feasibility projects and governmental and corporate strategy studies.

Lloyd's Marine Intelligence Unit
Telephone House, 69-77 Paul Street
London EC2A 4LQ, United Kingdom
+44 (0)20 7017 4805, (Fax) +44 (0)20 7017 5007
www.lloydsmiu.com