S & P 

It has been an active week in sale and purchase market with values continue to show signs of further softening.

In the Panamax sector, the Chinese built panamax M/V MERIAN (74,717 dwt 2000 blt Hudong) is rumoured to have been purchased by Greek interests for region US$ 17m. The trend of Japanese based owners selling 1990s built tonnage continued this week with Clients of K-Line selling M/V PLEIADES (68,962 dwt 1997 blt Imabari S.B.) for US$ 13.8m to Greek Buyers.

In the Supramax sector, clients of Zhoushan Zengzhou Shipyard have sold their 57,000 dwt Supramax HULL 003 delivering ex-yard January 2012, to Clients of Courage Marine at US$ 26m. The price is in line with the sister vessel they sold last month with a similar delivery.

Two handies the M/V STX QUEENSLAND and her sister M/V STX PIONEER (33,720 dwt 2005 blt Shin Kochi) have achieved US$ 20m each from European buyers.

There are a number of sales to report this week in the Tanker S+P sector; we understand that the VLCC EAGLE VALENCIA (306,998 dwt 2005 blt Samsung H.I.) has been sold to undisclosed buyers at region US$ 53m. In the MR sector, the much talked about pump-room type ex Sanko MR Tankers, namely M/T SANKO LYNX and M/T SANKO LIBRA (47,378 dwt 2010 blt Onomichi) has finally been confirmed sold after weeks of speculation surrounding the fate of the ships. They have been committed to c/o Tanker Pacific at region US$ 29m each. The Handysize tanker M/T DAI VIET (37,432 dwt 2005 blt Hyundai Mipo) has been committed by Vietnamese interests VOSCO to Greek Buyers at region US$ 22m. This follows the sale in July of an exact sister the M/T YELLOW STARS (37,269 dwt 2005 blt Hyundai Mipo) to South American interests for region US$ 25/26m.

 Newbuilding 

The level of enquiry in the newbuilding market has continued to remain active this week with interest mainly focused in the Dry Bulk sector; and with the news in the shipping markets being dominated this week by the Chapter XI filing of General Maritime this is perhaps unsurprising, especially when combined with the continued challenging environment within which many tanker owners continue to operate in, that short term interest in tanker newbuildings remains a little subdued.

As reported last week, there was a spate of orders placed within China for various sized dry bulk vessels and we continue to see newbuilding opportunities within the Dry Bulk market generating interest amongst owners. The combination of the newer efficient designs and attractive pricing are keeping interest levels high and we expect further business to be concluded in this sector over the coming weeks.

That being said however, there have been no reported dry bulk orders this week and instead we have seen a return to the pattern of earlier in the year with offshore and containership orders being contracted. DSME have this week signed their long discussed deal with the Odebrecht-Technip joint venture for a pair of Subsea pipe-laying support vessels. These have been penned at a reported price of circa USD500 Mill in total, with deliveries scheduled from 2H 2014. This order continues to highlight the importance of the offshore sector to the major Korean yards and reinforces the view that they will increasingly look to strengthen their position in these specialized sectors as they look towards an uncertain 2012 for the more standard commercial vessel types.

In addition to this order, it has been reported that Zodiac have returned to STX to upgrade their order placed with the yard in October last year, which had been for 4+2 x 13,000 TEU Vessels. It is understood that an agreement has been reached to increase the size of these vessels to 16,000 TEU and has seen a further 2+2 units added to the original number. The newer larger vessels are expected to deliver from 3Q 2014 onwards.

NEWBUILDING