S & P 

Another Japanese-controlled 90s built Capesize bulk carrier has been committed this week; Undisclosed Greek Buyers are understood to have purchased M/V ROYAL OASIS (161,192 dwt 1995 blt Hyundai H.I.) for US$ 16.5m. The Vessel attracted a large amount of interest from Buyers during her inspections in China.

Couple of older handymaxes changed hands: the Indian-owned M/V KANPUR (47,175 dwt 1986 blt Daewoo) to Bangladeshi trading buyers at region US$ 5-5.2m while the M/V PARNASSOS (40,907 dwt, built MITSUI SB 1984 C4X25T) reported sold to Greeks for xs US$ 5m, with her dry dock due April 2012.

We have seen an uptick in activity in the products sector this week with a number of sales to report. Clients of Sanko have disposed of 2x MR tankers M/T SANKO LYNX and sister M/T SANKO LIBRA (47,378 dwt 2010 blt Onomichi) to undisclosed buyers at around US$ 31m per Vessel. Continuing in this sector, albeit of a slightly older vintage, we can report that clients of Tanker Pacific have disposed of the M/T PACIFIC CRYSTAL (46,842 dwt 1993 blt Halla) to South East Asian buyers for a price in the region of US$ 7.25m. The older product carrier M/T BEAVER (40,302 dwt 1984 blt Uljanik) reported sold at US$ 5m, just above scrap value.

After a dearth in ordering in the large container sector over recent months, it will be interesting to see if the Chinese Yards for one are about to see a fresh batch of ordering, following the support they are now seeing from their domestic Owners. It is understood that China Shipping are now very imminently going to sign contracts for the first 10,000 TEU + ships to be ordered since June this year. This will see a large series of 10,000 TEU Ships penned within the State Yards. With other liner companies who are yet to make a play in the 10,000 + TEU sector still playing a wait and see game over the economies in the West, it will be interesting to see, over the remainder of this year, if they are now forced to play their hand and order to keep up with their competitors or if they will wait and see what the post Lunar New Year brings early next year.

The ability to order by said liner companies will of course be down to the appetite of the Banks to lend and the on-going profitability of main lane liner trade, for which following on from our thoughts last week, the financial debt markets in Europe don¡¯t seem to be able to ease anytime in the near future! With the Banks in Europe not only being forced to accept a 50% loss on Greek sovereign debt, but also now being forced to further recapitalise it seems the Buyers looking to order large series of Ships will be forced to look further and further at debt from the Far East. With the next twelve month slot rates for the big contracts now entering full flow too and downward pressure on these also, we will probably see more of a wait and see attitude from the Liner company executives over the next few months rather than seeing them all returning to the Yards to order a vast amount of ships over the coming weeks.

In terms of other reported business, China Shipping/Tianjin Zhonghai Huarun Shipping have ordered a further 4 x 45K dwt bulkers at Bohai. The enbloc price is reported to be USD 110Mill, although it must be noted that this does includes domestic taxes and delivery will begin from May 2013 onwards. The same Owners have also signed a sole 76k dwt Panamax at Jiangnan which is penned to deliver in January 2013. This was again at a reported price which includes domestic taxes and as such not comparable to export orders at circa USD 36 Mill.

NEWBUILDING