A total of 960 vessels of a cumulative 44.1m dwt have been sold for demolition in the first nine months of 2012, exceeding the record annual demolition volume of 42.6m dwt, set in 1985.
Scrapping in 2012 is forecast to reach 57m dwt, comparing with 42.4m dwt underpinned in full year 2011.
Demolition activity is increasing due to the challenging shipping market and relatively higher scrapping prices.
Bulkers represented around 58% of total tonnage scrapped in 2012 so far, with 25.4m dwt, of them capesize range accounted for 9.9m dwt.
Overall 9.3m-dwt tankers have been sold for demolition during the same period, of them suezmax and aframax took 5.7m dwt in total.
Boxship recorded 3.3m dwt volume of demolition sales.