Being our last report before the end of the year we decided to take a look at the year so far. It has been a year full of new records in terms of new vessels being delivered as well as those exiting the market. The total fleet has changed considerably in most of the main shipping segments as we can see in the table below.
In the Dry bulk sector we witnessed a formidable fleet growth level this year as the excess in new orders placed over the past couple of years entered into service. At the time of writing new deliveries had reached 1,094 vessels (equivalent to 94.65 million DWT) which is a new record passing the previous set in 2010 by 174 vessels. At the same time scrapping was also excessive, as we saw 388 vessels head for the breakers’ yards during the year. This is significantly higher than the 262 bulkers scrapped last year, while in deadweight terms it’s more than double what we saw in 2009 and 2010 put together. Despite this, year-on-year fleet growth managed to reach around 12%
In the tanker sector things seemed more manageable, as we witnessed a more moderate growth rate this year which is set to reach close to 4%. Having said that however, it is important to note that most of the vessels scrapped were smaller tankers, while in terms of deliveries we witnessed 63 VLCCs hit the water. This averages to just over 5 vessels every month. Being a sector which has already been plagued by an oversupply of vessels, this increase in tonnage, consequently put further downward pressure on the market. Indication of this was not only witnessed in the freight market but was also seen in the demolition market these past months were we saw relatively young double hull VLCCs head for the breakers’ yards.
The Container and Gas sectors witnessed a more moderate growth in fleet size this year, mainly due to the modest newbuilding ordering that took place since the start of the financial crisis in late 2008. Nevertheless, it was only the Gas carrier sector that was able to maintain a more bullish atmosphere in the chartering market, largely thanks to the still increasing demand for cleaner energy sources. The Containers which are still heavily dependent on end consumers in Europe and America have had to deal with a moderately decreasing demand especially on the long-haul routes.
While this year has seen a significant number of both deliveries and scrapping take place, 2012 is set to be another record breaking year. We have an extraordinary number of vessels scheduled for delivery while demand for further tonnage is not expected to increase as rapidly. In essence and in spite of the recent stall in increasing demo prices, scrapping is expected to be considerable as the newly delivered tonnage take preference amongst the relatively few charterer inquiries, pushing older vessels to head to head for scrapping sooner then would be expected.