Week 21st ended with 54 in total deals in the secondhand and demolition market, while just 10 orders in the newbuilding sector. Highest activity has been market in the secondhand market, which reflects the investment opportunities that are in this market and many investors prefer to focus on the secondhand activity rather in the newbuilding one due to the overcapacity and the difficulty of accessibility to finance.

SECONDHAND MARKET
The secondhand market activity has been marked with an 175% increase since last week, with 33 vessels in total reported to have changed hands and a total invested capital to being the region of US$ 502 mil, while 4 deals reported at an undisclosed sale price. The majority of vessels were bulkcarriers and containers reflecting the decrease in asset values, representing around 36% each of the total number of vessels being sold. Comparing to last year’s similar period, the market is at 65% higher levels in terms of numbers of units and 68% higher in terms of invested capital 68%.

NEWBUILDING MARKET
Just ten orders were reported this week, presenting a 52% decrease from last week. The orders were in the bulkcarriers sector and on the car-carrier sector. The total invested capital is calculated to be in the region of usd $ 267.8 mil, while the 2 panamax orders from Shenhua Zhonghai have been reported on private terms.
The bulkcarriers sector is the sector on which most Chinese yards depended their existence and performance, and that is one of the reasons why the Chinese shipbuilding industry is also facing issues on their orderbook, or even better on the lack of business they have. All 8 units were ordered at Chinese yards, 2 of them from Chinese investors and 6 from Italians.  2012 has proved to be a very difficult year for the newbuilding industries of all the countries. According to Fairplay, orders for Japan have presented a 3year low since the beginning of the year.
The car-carrier sector has shown activity since the beginning of the year, with 5 orders to have been placed so far. This week Eukor Car Carriers of South Korea has placed an order for 2 units of 6500car capacity at Hyundai Heavy Industry at a reported cost of $ 67 mil for each vessel, with holding option for two more.
Lastly, although no fresh orders have been revealed in the tanker sector, Sovcomflot seems to have cancelled 2 contracts of aframax vessels at domestic shipyards. According to market sources, the vessels were part of a series of up to 12 vessels ordered back in 2010 in a joint venture between Daewoo of Korea and United Shipbuilding Corp of Russia.

DEMOLITION MARKET
Scrapping activity continues to be strong while demolition prices have a decreasing trend. In total the week ended with 21 vessels reported for demolition, 5% higher than last week, while in terms of deadweight the figure this week is 30% less. The activity is at almost similar levels with the relevant period of last year, when 17 vessels were reported for demo of a total of 1,221,749tons deadweight. Most activity was in Bangladesh and India, although for the majority of the reported demolition deals no information were disclosed, therefore 49% refers to deadweight that went to undisclosed destinations.
It is worth noting that in the container sector; so far the capacity scrapped has reached 124,000teu, while Alphaliner reports that the total containership capacity to be scrapped for the whole year is forecasted to exceed 200,000teau.