The market for second hand vessels has kept on building momentum during the past week, in a clear sign that whatever the conditions in the freight market, there will always be ship owners out there looking to find a good deal. According to the latest report from shipbroker Shiptrade Services, the past week was completed with a healthy number of sales being reported.
“Highlights of the week are the sale of Panamax “Michele Bottiglieri” (abt 75.413 dwt Built Hitachi JPN 2001) at USD 26 mill to undisclosed buyers with 3 years TC back to Sellers at USD 16.000 / day and Panamax “La Jolla” (abt 72.126 dwt Built Hitachi JPN 1997) at USD 21 mill to Chinese buyers with a TC attached to COSCO at USD 14.750 / day until August- November 2011.
A number of vessels of various sizes and types are on the market seeking buyers at “decent” prices.
NYK is still inviting buyers for their Capesize “Suzaku” Blt 1994 JPN. We understand that no more than 3 buyers have requested permission to inspect the Vessel at Kashima and NYK is seeking offers at region USD 14.5 – 15 mill. Another 8 Capsizes built 90’s are on the market for the right “optimistic” buyer.
Owners of “Ansac Asia” (abt 33.945 Built Kanda JPN 1998) have become keen sellers and would be interested to see if the vessel will be sold after invited parties complete the inspection of the vessel in Korea on about end May – early June.
Bulkers Built in the region of ’85 are still of interest for both Greek and Chinese Buyers.
Ship Finance market in European area is still on Holidays…
Purchase enquiries remained at the same volume with buyers still looking for all types, sizes and ages in the dry sector. In the wet sector buyers are still looking for MR’s, Aframaxes and LR1 tankers” said Shiptrade.
More interestingly, in the demolition market Bangladeshi cash buyers continue to commit vessels for delivery at Bangladesh, while the Indian market shows signs of price softening with buyers waiting for prices to show further correction. Pakistan was not active this week, having acquired many candidates during the previous ones. The Chinese market prices continue to soften.
In a similar note, Golden Destiny said recently that in the demolition market, “following the two months extension in Chittagong the cutting process has started for some of the numerous vessels that have already been sitting on the beach and there are hopes that the market will return to normal business. India still leads the market, in terms of scrap prices and tonnage, by offering $500/ldt for dry and $535/ldt for wet cargo. Overall, scrap rates have not witnessed significant spikes, hovering almost at similar week’s levels, while the upcoming monsoon period in India along with insatiable demand for scrapping is high likely to push rates downwards. Bangladesh and India are as always on the frontline, while Chinese buyers are trying to pick up geographically positioned vessels with rates at least $50/ldt below the levels offered in the Indian sub continent market. Pakistan has a competitive advantage in the scrapping of tanker tonnage as incoming vessels need only a gas free main entry certificate opposed to the hot works requirement in India and Bangladesh.
The week ended with 17 vessels reported to have been headed to the scrap yards of total deadweight 922,199 tons. In terms of the reported number of transactions, the demolition activity has been marked with a 5.55% w-o-w decrease and regarding the total deadweight sent for scrap there has been a 32.8 decrease. In terms of scrap rates, the highest scrap rate has been achieved this week in the capsize bulkcarrier sector of a 150,561dwt called “ETERNAL SEA” at 550/ldt incl 1800tons of bunkers and sold As-is Mundra. Bangladesh this week has attracted 41% of the total demolition activity. Comparing to the similar week in 2010, demolition activity is up by 89%, in terms of the reported number of transactions, where 9 vessels had been reported for scrap of total deadweight 201 mil tons. India was leading the game by paying $150/ldt less than today’s levels for dry and $135/ldt for wet cargo, while Bangladesh had been showing the first sings of shutdown its business” concluded the shipbroker.