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The newbuilding market doesn’t look like it’s going to recover anytime soon, as ship owners have refrained from placing more orders, at least until the glut is eased across most shipping markets. This has been the story so far in the year and it doesn’t look like it’s going to change anytime soon. As it turns out, last week, was yet another one of limited action in the newbuilding market, with Allied Shipbroking pointing out that “the positive momentum dissipated as quickly as it emerged and shipbuilders now trying to increase their efforts in order to secure the much coveted new orders which could help them better protect their business operations. It has been a battle for survival this year so far and nothing seems to be shifting in any other direction for most shipbuilders. Great efforts have ben made over recent months to position new orders in a much more favorable and competitive light against secondhand assets in terms of prices, however the gap is still fairly wide and in cases such as tankers were it was narrower to begin with it has increasingly widened during recent weeks due to the drop in values being noted”, the shipbroker concluded.

Meanwhile, in a separate newbuilding report, Clarkson Platou Shipbroking noted that “whilst there are no new orders to report in Tankers or in Gas, in the container market there are two orders from domestic owners at Chinese yards. Quanzhou Ansheng Shipping have ordered four firm plus two optional coastal trading 2,400 TEU Container Carriers at Xiamen Shipbuilding. The four firm units are set for delivery throughout 2017 and 2018. The same owner has placed another series of two firm plus two optional coastal trading 2,400 TEU Container Carriers at Taizhou Sanfu. The firm vessels are due for delivery within the end 2017 and the optional unit in 2018, if declared. In other sectors, Fjord1 (Norway) have announced ordering two firm 2,700 GT Passenger/ Car Ferries at Tersan Shipyard in Turkey. Delivering from January 2018, these two vessels will have capacity to carry 120 cars, 12 trailers and 349 passengers, with battery propulsion”.

In the S&P Market this week, Vessels Value noted yesterday that “there are very few tanker sales to report this week. Values remain firm despite the slight softening of rates. TEN have placed an order for 2+2 LR1 tankers at South Korean Yard, Sungdong. The 75,000 DWT vessels are scheduled for 2018 delivery. In the small tanker sector, the chemical tanker Fiona (8,500 DWT, 1997 Blt, Miyoshi Zosen) is sold by Keoje Marine for USD 5.15m. The Anatolia Pacific (3,500 DWT, 2005 Blt, Miura Zosensho), a small clean tanker, has sold for USD 7m. The sales push small tanker values down marginally”.

According to VV’s senior data editor, Mr. Craig Jallal, “the bulker market has been considerably more active than tankers this week. Oldendorff continue their spending following the Nord Pyxis last week with the en bloc acquisition of two Handys and two Post Panamaxes from Italian owner SNUG. The two Handys, Lucy Snug and Karoline Snug (33,300 DWT, 2010 Blt, Yangzhou Ryuwa) sold for USD 5.1m each and the two Post Panamaxes, the Roma Snug and the Asti Snug (118,000 DWT, 2011 Blt, Zhejiang Shipbuilding) were done at USD 11.9m. The deal is the Riva Family’s (SNUG) exit from the world of shipping as they offload their entire fleet to the German heavyweight. Panamax Bulker, AMS Pegasus I (81,600 DWT, 2012 Blt, Hyundai Vinashin) has been bought by Transmed Shipping for USD 12.2m raising the bar on last done. LT Ugland have sold their supramax, the Caly Manx (58,100 DWT, 2009 Blt, Tsuneishi Zhoushan) at USD 9.8m. This represents an improvement on last done (see Ikan Siakap at USD 8.5m). The sale of the Western Stavanger (32,500 DWT, 2010 Blt, Jiangsu Zhenjiang) at USD 6m to Songa Shipping has been concluded with a three-year time charter included. With similar vessels, Norden has closed a deal with Clipper group to offload four of their Handy BCs, the Nord Vancouver, Nord Houston, Nord London, and the Nord Hong Kong (all 32,400 DWT, 2011 Blt, Jiangmen Nanyang). The Nord London is thought to have been done at USD 6.95m, whereas the remaining three were done at USD 6.35m each. Finally, the Azalea K (29,600 DWT, 2011 Blt, Shikoku Dockyard) has been done at USD 7.6m.

In the container market, rates have softened pushing down Panamax values. Quanzhou Ansheng have inked a deal for two 2,400 TEU Sub Panamax Containerships to be constructed at Xiamen Shipbuilding Co for 2017 and 2018 delivery. The sale of the Flintercrown (800 TEU, 2009 Blt, Nantong Mingde HI) has also been confirmed. The vessel was Flinter shipping’s sole boxship in a portfolio focused on the small dry and breakbulk sectors”, Mr. Jallal concluded.

Meanwhile, in the demolition market, Allied Shipbroking noted that “decreased interest from the side of buyers and softer prices have placed the brakes on the demolition volume being concluded over the past two weeks. Prices have dropped somewhat compared to what we were seeing in early May and with the Monsoon period now ever closer it looks unlikely that we will see any aggressive competition from the side of end buyers in order to drive up prices once more. At the same time most owners seemed to have temporarily halted any decision to send their tonnage to be scrapped, delaying their sale until the point were they hope to see better price levels on offer, while the fact that there has been some recovery in secondhand asset prices has also boosted hope of the possibility of a sale for further trading which would be at a premium compared to the assets scrap value. We are likely to see further drops on the pricing front as there are still plenty of vessels on offer, giving the upper hand to the end buyers at the moment”, said the shipbroker.

Source: Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide

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