With the Chinese Spring Festival approaching, most industrial and mining enterprises have been discontinued and the costal shipping demand has declined greatly. As a result, the freight rate market has seen further decrease.
In the last two trading weeks before the holiday, secondhand ship trading market keep stable with inquiries slightly decreased. Some owners are eager to lease or purchase proper ships for later shipping contracts. There are buyers looking for 3000dwt bulk carrier of draft smaller than 5.0 m. Buyers from Jujian province are looking for 5,000dwt bulkers for low prices which could be delivered before the holiday. The lack of confidence in the shipping market has greatly influenced buyer’s activity in secondhand market, enquiries for 10,000dwt and 20,000dwt bulkers have kept downturn. However, there are still owners looking for 1990s built Handysize and Handymax bulkers built by Japanese shipyard.
With market demand and enquiries all declined, price indices for different bulkers has all seen drops in the period. Shipowners show more prudent attitude for future shipping market.
Transactions of inland ships remain the rising momentum and further drive up the ship price.
Oil consumption market has entered into the off-season, coastal oil shipping demand witnessed overall downturn with oil inventory keeping high. Domestic coastal second-hand tanker market trends keep stale. Some owners are eager to buy ship for fixed contracts the coming year. However, individual enterprise behavior is impossible to stop the overall market declining trend.
Enquiries for 1000dwt Grade III tankers with heating equipment began to decrease. 2000dwt to 3000dwt secondhand tanker inquiries stay low. However, some old Grade I tanker are still popular in the market, some buyer asks for 3000dwt heavy oil tanker for Bohai bay transport services. Buyers’ interests in 4000dwt to 5000dwt newbuilt product oil tanker increased for some shipping companies need to buy the ships for future operation.
In the period, a 2010-blt 4900dwt product oil tanker was reported to be changed hand, however the detailed price has not been disclosed. Another 1988-blt 3,300dwt Grade I tanker were transacted at a rumored price of CNY3.50m.
Ship price index for three-year 1,000dwt secondhand tanker and three-year 5,000dwt units has seen mild increase in the period with demand rising.
Currently, domestic enquiries for multi-purpose vessels and containerships are still scarce. A 2004-blt 4,700dwt multi-purpose vessel was transacted at a price ofCNY6.0m.
As for engineering ship market, demand for tugs has decreased slightly. There is an owner looking for 2,000dwt deck barge to haul stones.