As expected with holidays around the world, like Golden Week and National Holidays in both Japan and across the world this week, the newbuilding market has remained a little subdued this past week. In its latest report, Clarkson Hellas noted that “that is not to say however that there has been a complete dearth of activity, with reports surfacing of further ordering in the Gas and Dry bulk sectors. This further ordering in the Gas market is perhaps not a surprise given what has become a familiar story over the past year and these latest orders in the Dry Bulk market reflect owners increasing willingness to consider placing orders where the latest design developments mesh more comfortably with the current market price levels” said Clarkson Hellas.
It continued by saying that “one sector however that has not yet reflected the ordering of last year remains the container market, wherein there have been only limited reports of new business having been concluded thus far this year. We understand though that several volume container projects are currently under discussion both in Korea and China and that the yards here are all competing fiercely to win what business is available. It is felt that this competition is leading to a continued softening in pricing and that the competition itself is being further exacerbated by the still somewhat limited demand in the other conventional sectors. As with other sectors though, the Yards have been continually working hard on the technical innovation of their container designs and importantly in reducing the consumption of the Vessels in this time of very high bunker pricing. Typically, these enhancements are leading to the designs being developed today now offering significant savings even against the vessels ordered post-crash last year and as such feel the container market will be one to watch over the coming weeks where we expect ordering will begin afresh to take advantage of this” concluded Clarkson Hellas.
In a separate report, Golden Destiny mentioned that “the newbuilding market has shown a 67% increase compared to last week, with the tanker sector driving the activity and presenting a w-o-w increase of 225%. The action focused on the MR segment with Sea Tankers of Cyprus and Tanker Pacific Management of Singapore ordering 4 units with options two plus two each. Overall, the week closed with 40 orders reported worldwide at a total deadweight of 841,740 tons. The total invested capital from the contracts with reveal data is about $ 1.14bil, while again around 75% of the newbuilding business has been reported on private terms. In the bulkcarrier sector 3 orders were reported, with one (option one more) being from Greek interests of a “flexible bulker design” of 66,000dwt. Densay Shipping of Turkey is rumored to have ordered two 82,000dwt vessels from Jinling Shipyard in China, however the owners of the company deny it, while confirm that the deal is at the LOI signing stage” it mentioned.
It went on to say that “in the container market, fresh orders haven’t been reported; although there are discussions that Seaspan is expected to sign a LOI for 18 ships of 10,000teu. These orders will be options that were attached to Seaspan’s order of June 2011 for 7 such vessels of a value of $ 700mil. Additionally, Avin International from Greece is said to be entering the container sector with two 1700teu vessels from China’S Zhejiang Ouhua Shipbuilding at a reported price of $ 50 mil enbloc, while the order is thought to include also options for two additional units. What also drew industry’s attention was that CSCL (China Shipping Container Line) announced that it will not be taking options for 4 10,000teu vessels, the initial order of which was made in October last year at $ 94 mil each that were ordered at Dalian Shipbuilding and Hudong Zhonghua” Golden Destiny stated.
Meanwhile, in the demolition market, the Piraeus-based shipbroker noted that “the scrapping business continues to be on the high side, with the week ending with 25 vessels of a total deadweight of 1,032,443tons. The vessels sent to the scrapyards have been almost from all vessel types, with almost all markets being active. India attracted most business, while Pakistan and Bangladesh followed. In terms of scrap rates, for the wet sector th rates are in xs of $ 500, while for the dry side in the region of high $ 400/ldt, even $ 500/ldt depending on the vessel, the destination and the terms of business” it concluded.