Financially sound owners appear to be driving some hard bargains in the containership newbuilding market.
The cost of a wide-beam 4,800 teu vessel has fallen by more than $10m since the end of last year, according to Clarksons, or almost 18%. That is way down from historic highs touched in late 2008 when a ship of that specification would have cost more than $80m.
According to Maersk Broker, not many negotiations are now being held, “But whether these discussions will materialise into actual newbuilding contracts is too early to say.”
Braemar Seascope says in its latest quarterly report that around 28 containerships of some 200,000 teu were ordered in the April-June period. Although this was up on the first quarter, capacity ordered represented a 72% drop from the corresponding period of 2011.