In its latest report on the newbuilding ordering business, Clarkson Hellas mentioned that the newbuilding market has seen yet further reports of new business being concluded across a range of sectors this week, including the Product Tanker, Gas and PCC markets amongst others. “These first of these sectors in particular has already seen a good level of ordering activity and this latest business certainly helps maintain the momentum that has been generated so far this year. 2012 has so far been a comparatively quieter year in the Newbuilding market and this latest ordering will certainly be welcomed against a challenging macro economic & trading environment. The overall orderbook now stands at its lowest level since 2005 having been in decline over the past 4 years and a major part of this can be attributed to the greatly reduced levels of ordering in the conventional sectors such as the Dry Bulk and Crude Tanker markets” said Clarkson Hellas.
It’s report added that “we continue to see the yards and design houses strive to make every improvement to the efficiency of their designs in an effort to combat this and these developments looks increasingly important, with oil prices continuing to hover around the US$ 120 per barrel mark (Brent) and firm forward anticipation on pricing. The overall cost of bunkers looks likely to continue to rise in the near future, especially when factoring in the need to burn various fuels within the different ECA Zones and it will certainly be an interesting story to follow to see how owners react to this and the impact the coming two tier market (that is developing against this evolution in designs) will have on asset values across the board” concluded Clarkson Hellas.
Meanwhile, in a separate report, Golden Destiny mentioned that the new building market has shown a 35% decrease compared to last week, while the negative prospects of the sector don’t seem to change. “Shipyards are facing pressure as they try to stay into business, to attract new business and also to handle the orders that have already accepted, since they deal with not only cancellations but also renegotiations for delay the delivery of the vessels for the contracts already accepted. One of the many examples is of Zim Integrated Services (the Israeli line) that is again trying to push back the delivery of the vessels that were booked within 2007 and were expected to be delivered this year. The company is in discussions that the 12,500teu vessels under construction at Samsung H.I. to be transferred for delivery in 2018” said the Piraeus-based shipbroker.
It added that “overall, the week closed with 24 orders reported worldwide at a total deadweight of 1,649,180 tons, posting a 35% week-on-week decrease. Additionally some orders were reported in the market from Japanese shipyards, however we assume they refer to older business that has been now revealed. The order of the Korean Infrastructure Investment Asset Management Company of 10 13,800TEU container vessels, which was also mentioned during the previous weeks in the market, boosts the activity of this week since it represents 41.5% of the total activity. The total invested capital cannot be calculated since almost 46% of the new building business has been reported on private terms. In the bulkcarriers side all three orders came from Far East investors, while in the tanker segment the two orders came from Japan and the other two from the US. The reported business refers to MR sector which continues to draw investors’ preference. Lastly, the offshore segment continues to attract a steady interest from investors, posting a 20% increase on a weekly basis” Golden Destiny said.
Finally, in the demolition market, the report noted that “the scrapping business keeps its high record pace and this week ended with 25 vessels (3 of which have been reported as older business) of a total deadweight of 1,384,181 tons. It is interesting to note that all of the vessels that have been recorded this week to head to the demolition yards are of dry tonnage. Bulkcarriers grasped the lions share with 48% and containers and general cargo vessels followed with 20%. The activity was evident from this week’s reported demolition sales in all markets except Pakistan. India attracted the majority with 36% and total deadweight of 493,171 tons, although Bangladesh attracted just 3 units of total deadweight 510,726 (since 2 of them were capsizes). The highest prices have been offered for the capesize vessels reported from Bangladesh & India at $ 480-490/ldt, with MV KATSURAGI MARU 188,000/1986 acquiring the highest recorded price of $ 490/ldt from Bangladesh” concluded Golden Destiny.