Many shipowenrs now have choosen to “buy” ships instead of “build” vessels against the depressed shipping market and declining ship prices. Secondhand market seem more appealing at present.
At usual, ships with long-term gain are more attractive to investors, no matter its secondhand for newbuild. Greek shipbroker Intermodal points out that the dry bulk market’s benchmark BDI has been no longer well enough to reflect the overall shipping market currently. Its analyst Mr. Panos says: “second hand market values have continued to drop day by day these past months and are creating very attractive “shopping” opportunities for any prospective buyer who is there and very willing to acquire a secondhand vessel as soon as possible.”
Panos put forward that most potential buyers are presently hesitant to make a move despite the competitive prices currently especially for the vessels built after 1990. Most of them prefer to wait for more attractive prices. On the other hand, as long as the depressed freight rates and oversupply issue continue, shipowners are likely to scrap older vesselsr to make room for the newbuilds in future. However, the action will kind of affect values of the vessels in a negative way, particularly for older vessels.
Japan-based Nisshin has recently sold its Panamax bulkers ‘Washington Trader’ and ‘Goldbeam Trader’ 74K dwt ( blt 2000 and 200) at a total cost of $30-31m to a Greek buyer. But the company’s aiming price for the two bulkers was $30 m for each in June 2009. That is to say, Nisshin offloaded the two vessels at only half of the price in 2009.
This transaction fully reveals the continual fall in secondhand vessel value and also gives a hint that maybe more such deals will be concluded at similar levels in the near future, if not at even lower levels.
In conclusion, it seems it’s a “right time” to take actions, especially for perspective buyers who focus long-term profits.
Meanwhile, Piraeus-based shipbroker Golden Desinty said in its recent report that despite the BDI’s fall, it hasn’t deterred owners from buying dry units at very attractive prices, with MR tankers still being the preferable choice for secondhand investments in the tanker segment.