In its latest weekly report, Clarkson Hellas noted that “with the excitement of Posidonia on the horizon and with the recent elections in both Greece and France, the focus and discussion has yet again started to concentrate on how these political changes will affect not only European policy, but more importantly for shipping, how the banking sector will be affected and their ability to start lending again. Looking below at our reported business it could almost seem as if we are returning to the good old days with nearly 30 contracts placed at various yards this week and we are likely to hear confirmation of further contracts concluded over the upcoming weeks before Posidonia commences. However, even with these relatively positive signs, the view remains that the under laying problems of oversupply of tonnage, over capacity at yards and lack of funding are still very real threats to the longer term recovery of the shipbuilding market and as such one week of positive news sadly does not mean that the corner has been turned towards a full recovery!” said Clarkson Hellas.
In a separate report, shipbroker Golden Destiny mentioned that “while Shipping is facing a difficult period, Hellenic investors seem to take advantage of the opportunities and present a steady presence in the investment arena. This week, the sale of one post panamax bulkcarrier vessel sold at auction and one aframax vessel were reported to be acquired by Greek buyers. In the newbuilding sector, no orders were reported although rumours are spread of Greek shipowners investigate the market before placing new orders. The total invested capital of the secondhand investments is calculated to be in the region of $ 30.9 million” stated the Piraeus-based shipbroker.
It also mentioned that “the newbuilding market continues to move in low levels, due to the imbalance of the market. Although secondhand transactions are more popular for investing, the investors that didn’t make any moves in the newbuidling market during the peak times, have now the capacity to order the units that they believe in and at price levels very competitive as well as with terms that are for their benefit. According to statistics published from Commodore Research, just in the bulkcarrier side, 1,230 vessels are expected to be delivered this year, comparing to 906 delivered in 2010 and around 1,149 in 2011. Over the last years, it has proved to be very difficult to estimate the exact number of deliveries due to the lack of information provided by yards of actual deliveries, orders and cancellations.
This week, the market has shown a 33% decrease compared to last week, with 27 news orders reported and bulkcarriers grasping the lion’s share with 19 out of the 27 orders. Tanker orders followed, representing 22%, and the special projects sector with just two orders but one of a drilling rig and one of a drillship. The total invested capital is calculated to be in the region of US $ 1.2 billion, however it should be taken into account that for 8 contracts, the contract prices haven’t been disclosed.
In the bulkcarrier sector that attracted 70% of the newbuilding investment activity, we saw orders from all sizes, the biggest being of an Ore carrier, which has been reported at $ 116 mil however this figure seems to be too high. Chinese investors, that ordered for the first time panamax size vessels, proceeded with the order of 6 units at Jiangnan, after the yard competed with Chengxi & Bohai in order to win the account. A Chinese yard that wanted to boost its operations ordered 6 ultramaxes, which will have a bareboat charter for 10 years to Greeks, with an option to acquire them at the 6th year. Lastly, 6 units were ordered on the handysize sector, while there are discussions that Greek owners Soloi Inc are investigating the market for ordering 2 kamsarmax vessel” said Golden Destiny.
In terms of the demolition market the shipbroker noted that “the dynamic presence of Bangladeshi yards is explained due to their effort to stock for the upcoming monsoon season as well as for their budget on the 10th of June, with the monsoon season most probably decreasing the scrapping activity during June to September. Furthermore, last week one more scrap yard worker died, marking the 3rd death of a scrap yard worker, after being crushed by a falling iron plate. Although scrapping activity in Bangladesh is still permitted, the situation is sensitive and the Authorities for sure are monitoring the conditions and injuries” concluded the report.