Danaos Chief executive John Coustas expects the supply and demand equation to bode well for owners over the next two years but urges the industry to keep an eye on the orderbook.
In its New York-listed boxship operator’s first-quarter earnings report, the chief executive told investors: “We have noticed significant speculative ordering of newbuildings this quarter, which although not alarming at the moment, should be closely observed. However, we remain quite optimistic for the next 24 months as the demand supply balance will be in the owners' favour.”
John Coustas says speculative ordering is so far limited to the sub-5,000 teu sectors, but needs observing. The chief executive also says Danaos is not rushing to join an emerging new spree of containership ordering after only just completing a major refinancing.
Mr Coustas said that speculative ordering had so far been concentrated in smaller sizes, for ships with capacities less than 5,000 teu. “We have not seen any speculative large post-panamax ordering,” he said.
Mr Coustas said companies eager to contract newbuildings were either “people who had no exposure to the container market and want to get in” or those with older vessels taking the opportunity to renew fleets.