Despite the beginning of summer holidays for many stakeholders in the maritime industry, including shipping companies, ship owners still appear to be rather energetic when it comes to placing newbuilding orders. According to the latest weekly report from Clarksons Hellas, “this week we have seen the Australian mining magnate Clive Palmer, take some time out from his ambitious Titanic II project, to order something a little more mainstream in the dry sector to support the ore import activities of his wholly owned Queensland Nickel Group, in addition to these orders we have also seen some activity in the products space.
Overall however, yards are still struggling to attract any significant new orders and in many cases yards forward order books are diminishing rapidly to levels not seen for many years and as such many yards will spend the summer holiday period trying to come up with innovative ways to fill the empty spaces. Many will no doubt hope to find respite in some of the more niche markets such as offshore and gas, however even in these relatively buoyant sectors competition remains fierce and the numbers of new orders actually available is limited when compared to the size of the dry, wet and container fleets. The one silver lining for yards that have been successful in the offshore and gas sectors, is that the relatively high value of the orders should at least offset some of the pain from the lack of numbers of units actually ordered, but ultimately yards still face a sobering second half of the year!” concluded Clarksons Hellas.
In a separate report, shipbroker Golden Destiny reported that in “the newbuilding market, the business remains subdued following last week’s enbloc order for 20 coastal ethanol tankers by Transpetro of Brazil that pushed the total volume of ordering activity to more than 30 transactions. The ultramax bulk carrier design of 64,000 dwt with supramax of 56,000dwt remains the most popular newbuilding investment, while the car carrier segment has jumped in during July with some substantial business reported. The offshore segment is still on the spotlight with boxship units being the least attractive, while there has been a quiet period in LNG newbuilding transactions. Notable order has been in the bulk carrier segment for a newcastlemax unit of 207,000dwt by Polaris Shipping of South Korea as an opportunity under the current plunge of newbuilding prices” said the report.
The shipbroker also mentioned that “overall, the week closed with 24 fresh orders reported worldwide at a total deadweight of 721,850 tons, posting a 25 % week-on-week decline, with a 90% decline in tanker newbuilding business, while bulk carriers with offshore support vessels grasped the lion share, 66% of this week’s newbuilding business. At similar week closing in 2011, the newbuilding business was up by 79%, when 43 fresh orders had been reported with tankers and containers grasping 58% and 25% share respectively of the total ordering activity. In terms of invested capital, the total amount of money invested is estimated at region $307,6 mil with 63% of the total number of orders being reported at an undisclosed contract price. The offshore segments keeps to be the most overweight by holding 47% of this week’s total invested capital, with dry bulk carriers to follow by attracting 33% of the total amount invested for new units” it said.
Breakin down the overall activity by sector, “in the bulk carrier segment, Polaris Shipping of South Korea has ordered a newcastlemax bulker of 207,000dwt at STX Dalian for delivery in September 2014 at a price believed to be close to $50mil. In smaller sized segments,  ustralian mining magnate Clive Palmer’s newly established shipping company, Asia Pacific Shipping Enterprise, has sealed an order for four 64,000dwt ultramax bulkers in China’s CSC Jinling Shipyard for delivery in the first half of 2014, at an undisclosed contract price. The contract includes an option for four more units. The vessels will be used to transport nickel to a refining plant bought from BHP Billiton by Palmer. In the tanker segment, South Korean shipbuilder Hyundai Mipo Dockyard has won a new order for two MR tankers 40,000dwt from d'Amico of Italy. The vessels are being built to a new shallow-draught design and are due for delivery in 1Q 2014. They have been priced at about $61M en bloc. D'Amico holds options for a further two ships as part of the contract” said Golden Destiny.
It added that “in the gas tanker segment, K Line of Japan is said to have ordered a very large gas carrier (VLGC) at domestic shipyard Kawasaki Heavy Industries for delivery in the first quarter of 2014. The deal has been concluded in yen as Japanese shipyards are currently not viewed as competitive for international contracts. In the LNG segment, Greek owner ALMI Gas is going to drop slots for two 160,000cbm LNG carriers at Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering set for delivery in July and September 2014, after failing to secure time charters for the units. However, he stresses that the 2015 slots remain firm as they believe that the market at that time will be more active. Furthermore, Swedish owner Stena told Lloyds List that it had allowed two orders for 173,400 cum LNG vessels at Daewoo Shipbuilding Marine Engineering lapse due to poor financial markets. Stena LNG chief executive Kim Ulman said that the project had been put on hold because it had been contingent on initial public offering plans that the group had hoped would launch this spring in Oslo” the report concluded.