S & P 

It has been generally a quiet week for the sale and purchase market however there are still a number of sales to report across the majority of the dry sectors.

A vessel reported to now have been committed from the Japanese market is the handymax M/V SOLAR ASIA (46,658 dwt 1998 blt Mitsui) sold for US$ 12.5m to Chinese interest.

Following the reported sale of the sister M/V NENA A clients of Fairsky Shipping have also committed of another handymax of the vessel series M/V NENA C (43,188 dwt 1994 blt Hyundai) for US$ 9.8m to Italian buyers. There are several rumours that M/V APEX BULKERS is also committed to undisclosed buyers for a price in the region of US$ 14m. The M/V EASTGATE (27,877 dwt 1990 blt Kanasashi) reported sold for a firm price in the region of US$ 5.75m to Ukrainian buyers while the 8 years younger M/V ATLANTIC KING (27,797 dwt 1998 blt Naikai) reported sold for a price slightly in excess of US$ 8.5m to Chinese buyers.

This week has seen the conclusion to the sale of the 2007 built Shin Kurushima MR tanker FREJA FIONIA which has been sold to clients of the Thenamaris group for US$ 21.5m; this sale indicates a further softening on the values of non IMO notation MRs.

NEWBUILDING  

Whilst there have been some further reports of new business being concluded this week, the newbuilding market has been a little bit subdued, both in terms of the number of firm orders placed as well new enquiries being seen in the market.

As has perhaps been the case in the past, this is not surprising given the close proximity to Posidonia - and will be interesting to note what announcements of pending discussions are announced over the next 10 days.

The recent uncertainty surrounding the political climate in Europe has not perhaps had the most positive effect in the global financial markets - it remains to be seen whether this will have a knock on effect, through the availability of financial liquidity and whether in turn, this has a further disparaging effect on buying sentiment from the Western Markets.

As always though and in spite of these challenges, Posidonia will give both owners and yards a good chance to discuss recent developments in the market, such as the major efficiency enhancements that have been made to many of the designs. With so much design work having been carried out in the last year, it will be interesting to see whether we are close to reaching the peak of performance for this latest generation of eco designs. If so, it may well spur further ordering across the sectors, as the buying markets gain confidence that new ships ordered today will remain competitive moving onwards into the future.

In terms of reported business; In Wet, Kyoei Tanker Co. are reported to have placed an order at Universal Shipyard for 1 x 318,000dwt VLCC. Whilst pricing remains unknown the vessel is understood to be due to deliver in Feb 2014 and will be built from their Ariake facility.