The dry bulk segment has kept on dominating newbuilding ordering activity during the course of the past week, but this time around, shipowners' focus has revolved more around the smaller in size, but more agile and versatile Handysize and Supramax classes. According to the latest weekly report from shipbroker Clarkson Hellas, "the Japanese yards appear to have had their fair share of the orders this week with JMU Yokohama contracting two 61,500 DWT Supramax for Oldendorff Carriers with delivery of both vessels in the second half of 2014".
It added that "this week it has come to light that Norden have increased their orderbook with contracts for a further four 56,000 DWT Supramax. These vessels, thought to have been committed in the first quarter of this year, are planned for delivery in 2015 with the orders split across a number of Japanese yards. Notable ordering in the Handysize sector this week starting with D’Amico Ireland extending their orders at Zhejiang Yangfan by declaring an option for the 7th 39,500 DWT in the series. Delivery of this newest vessel is lined up for 2015 with pricing in the region USD 22.3 Mill. Transbulk have continued the ordering at Yangfan placing a contract for two firm and two option 39,500 DWT Handysize with delivery of the firm vessels in 2015 and pricing in the region USD 23 Mill. Korean owned Chinese facility, Weihai Samjin is understood this week to have taken an order for four firm plus four option 36,700 DWT Handysize from German owner Vogemann, taking the yard’s Handysize orderbook to over 20 vessels. Pricing is understood to lie in the region USD 22.3 Mill and delivery of the firm vessels from end of 2014 and options in 2015 if declared. Lastly in dry, Wisdom Marine Lines are reported to have placed an order for a single 35,300 DWT Handysize at Tsuneishi Zhoushan with delivery in early 2015", Clarkson Hellas concluded.
In a separate report, shipbroker Golden Destiny said that "overall, the week closed with 28 fresh orders reported worldwide at a total deadweight of 1,100,900 tons, posting 22% week-on-week decrease from previous week, with bulk carriers holding 27% share of the total volume of new orders and special projects the same share. This week’s total newbuilding business is 20% down from similar week’s closing in 2012, when 21 fresh orders had been reported, 2 for bulkers, 12 for tankers, 2 Ro-Ro and 5 for special projects. In terms of invested capital, the total amount of money invested is estimated in region of more than $1,24 bn with 14 newbuilding contracts reported at an undisclosed contract price. A hefty amount of money is invested in the offshore segment with 9 new orders by showing 100% weekly increase in the number of new orders reported. In the bulk carrier segment, more than $255,5mil is invested for nine new contracts. The ordering business in the bulk carrier segment showed this week a retreat of 600% from the number of orders placed in the first days of May", the Piraeus-based shipbroker said.
It added that "in the tanker segment, D’ Amico international Shipping S.A of Italy announced that its operating subsidiary D’Amico Tankers Limited exercised its option, from its original order placed in March, for the construction of two additional new product / chemical tanker vessels of 50,000dwt at Hyundai Mipo Dockyard with expected delivery in the second half of 2015 at a newbuilding cost of less than $30mil. The vessels are the latest IMO II MR design with the highest fuel efficiency.
In the gas tanker segment, MITSUI OSK Lines has ordered a 155,000cm3 LNG carrier from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, at an undisclosed contract price. The ship will service a long-term affreightment contract that MOL signed with Osaka Gas and Kyushu Electric Power for 12 years till 2020. The ship will transport LNG that the Japanese utilities purchase from Ichthys LNG project in Australia. The vessel will ship 800,000 tonnes/year of LNG from the project to Osaka Gas and 300,000 tonnes/year to Kyushu Electric Power" the report said.
Additionally, "in the container segment, South Korean feeder operator Heung-A Shipping confirmed it has ordered a 1,103TEU feeder boxship at Japan’s Kyokuyo Shipyard, following its order for four 1,000TEU boxships at Dae Sun Shipbuilding & Engineering, for about $20mil with delivery in November 2014. In the post panamax segment, Capital Ship Management of Greece is said to have signed a letter of intent for the construction of two 8,600 TEU boxships, plus an option of two more, for delivery in 2015 at a cost of around $80mil each.
In the car carrier segment, Wilh Wilhelmsen of Norway has ordered two post panamax pure car and truck carriers, with an option of two more, at Hyundai Heavy Industries of South Korea, at an undisclosed contract price. The vessels will have a car carrying capacity equivalent to 7,930 ceu, be 200m long and have a beam width of 36.7m, approximately 4.3m wider than today’s car
carriers.
In the offshore segment, Chinese shipbuilders, Sainty Marine, Ming De Heavy Industry (Ming De) and China Chengdu Import & Export Group (Chengdu IM/EX) have won an order for two platform supply vessels (PSV) from a Norwegian PSV company, at a total cost of $1,44bn for delivery in 2015. In addition, Malaysia’s largest OSV builder Nam Cheong said it has sold five offshore vessels to various clients for a total of $110M. The group said it sold one 12,000bhp AHTS to an “emerging” Indonesian offshore marine services firm. The vessel will be deployed in the Southeast Asian region. Further, the group has sold four PSVs to an existing customer, a leading oilfield services firm based in Asia. All vessels will be delivered between the second quarter of 2013 to the fourth quarter of 2014", the report concluded.