The oversupply of ships across most segments of the maritime industry has finally prompted most ship owners to refrain from ordering more vessels, a trend mostly noted since the beginning of 2012 and was likely triggered by the collapse of the Baltic Dry Index until February. Most orders placed so far this year was a result of the low pricing policies adopted by many shipyards, while many owners opted to enter new and unexplored fields, like the offshore and LNG segments.
In its latest weekly report, Clarkson Hellas noted that “shipyards and the expectation remains that this slow start to the year is unlikely to improve in the short term. This leads yards with the difficult task of trying to work out how they are going to fill their rapidly depleting orderbooks and one area where many are hoping to find salvation is in the Offshore arena, where a continued high oil price and higher Exploration & Production spending by the oil companies points towards an upturn in the market.
Whilst the expectation is to see a steady increase in demand for Vessels, there is still a large orderbook that needs to be cleared before we expect to see any significant ordering and when those orders do start to come the competition between yards will be fierce, so they can expect margins to be squeezed significantly in the fight for new orders. On top of this, although Offshore is one of the brighter spots in the shipping space today, many companies still face the same funding issues that we have seen plague the rest of the shipping markets and getting financing in place is a hurdle that could further hold up the growth of the Offshore market, so all in all Offshore may not quite be the savior that Yards are hoping for in 2012” said Clarkson Hellas.
In terms of reported business, the shipbroker’s report noted that “a domestic Chinese Owner from the Fujian province has order a quartet of shallow drafted, coastal trading 51,000 dwt bulkers at Taizhou Sanfu shipyard for delivery from December 2013 onwards. We understand that this business had been concluded in domestic currency, but has a USD equivalent of circa USD 25 Mill per Vessel. Also in dry, we understand Clients of Wisdom, Taiwan have returned to Tsuneishi Zhoushan for two plus two units of 45k dwt bulkers with delivery in 2014. Finally the South Korean owner, NS Nikko Copper have reportedly placed an order for a singleton 37.3k dwt handysize bulker at HMD for delivery in September 2013. In wet Wilmar Holdings of Singapore have ordered two, plus two, plus two x 4,200 dwt bunkering tankers at SWS in China for delivery from July 2013, the price is understood to be around USD 7 Mill. Finally Ray Shipping are understood to have returned to HMD to extent their order of 6,500 CEU PCC’s by an additional unit for delivery in second half 2013” said Clarkson Hellas.
As expected, owners who still want to improve or expand their fleets are mostly turning towards the sale and purchase markets. This past week was reportedly quite active for the dry bulk sector. According to Clarkson’s data, “the Cape size M/V KOHFUKUSAN (172,566 dwt 1999 blt NKK) has been sold for US$ 15m to Greek buyers. The Panamax M/V PETKA (75,460 dwt 1994 blt B&W) reported sold to European buyers for US$ 9.7m with 1 year timecharter back to the Sellers Atlantska Plovidba at US$ 10,000 per day. The Ultramax resale/ newbuilding 61,000 dwt from Imabari has been purchased by Greek buyers (Carras) for US$ 28.3m with early delivery. In the supramax sector, the Japanese controlled M/V FURNESS HARTLEPOOL (52,300 dwt 2006 blt Tsuneishi Cebu) has been committed for US$ 20.5m to undisclosed European interests basis a tc free delivery by arrangement. Top Ships’ last bulker M/V EVIAN (51,201 dwt 2002 blt New Century) reported sold at US$ 12.2m; with her sale Top Ships is reverting solely to tanker operations. The Handymax M/V TARAPACA (46,786 dwt 2000 blt Kanasashi) is reported sold to Greek buyers for US$ 13.85m. A few sales to report in the handysize sector; the overaged M/V DINA G (37,725 dwt 1984 blt Sasebo) is sold to Chinese interests for US$ 3.5m.
The M/V IRMGARD (37,300 dwt 2012 blt Imabari) which originally ordered by Blumenthal, as been sold to Far Eastern buyers (Pacific Basin) for US$ 22.5m. The open hatch/boxed shaped type M/V ORIENTAL FINDER (32,395 dwt 2003 blt Kanda) has been sold domestically/Korea through a bank sale for US$ 13m while the same type M/V GITTA
OLDENDORFF (31,603 dwt 2005 blt Saiki) is committed to undisclosed buyers for US$ 14.5m. The M/V SH BRIGHT (29,828 dwt 2006 blt Shikoku) has been committed for a price of US$ 15.7m. Other sales include the M/V PERAST (30,650 dwt 1984 blt UK) reported sold to Turkish buyers for US$ 3.2m; Chinese buyers have agreed to pay a price of US$ 4.05m for the M/V SEA HOPE (27,939 dwt 1989 blt Shin Kurushima); the M/V ARMSTRONG (27,900 dwt 1995 blt Naikai) is sold at US$ 7.75m. Finally the smaller handy M/V IKAN TERBANG (18,849 dwt 2005 blt Yamanishi) is sold to European buyers for US$ 10m” concluded Clarkson Hellas.