This week ended with BDI closing today at 1,323 points, down by 30 points from the end of previous week and down by 21.74% since the beginning of the year, while at similar week in 2010 the BDI was 1,801 points. Capesizes are currently earning $10,806day, a decline of $696/day (6%) from a week ago. Panamaxes are earning $12,256/day, a decline of $347/day (2.7%) from a week ago, Supramaxes $13,286/day, a decline of just  $6/day (4.5%) and handysizes $10,272/day, a decline of $40/day (0.38%) respectively from a week ago.
Overall, the week ended with 35 transactions reported in the secondhand and demolition market, at same levels of last week and from 2010 similar week, when again 35 transactions had been reported, while the highest activity this week has been both in the demolition and newbuilding market with 24 and 25 respective reported deals.

SECONDHAND MARKET
In the secondhand market, 11 vessels reported to have changed hands this week at a total invested capital in the region of US$182,9 million, 2 transactions reported with undisclosed sale price. In terms of the reported number of transactions, the S&P activity is down by 15% from last week’s activity and down by 57.7% comparing with previous year’s weekly S&P activity when 26 vessels induced buyers’ interest. In terms of units reported sold, the bulkcarrier sector grasped 45% share of the total volume of S&P activity, and 42% in terms of invested capital. It is worth mentioning that although just two vessels exchanged hands in the container sector, these sales represent the 45.6% of the total invested capital.

NEWBUILDING MARKET
In the newbuilding market, investments continued however in a slower pace, presenting a 47% decline from last week in terms of contracted orders. Overall, the week closed with 25 new orders reported worldwide, down by 71% from similar week closing in 2010 when an impressive figure of 86 new orders had reported worldwide. Bulkcarriers and containers are again in the top preference of investors, representing 32% each of the total orders reported. The total investment capital is calculated to be more than usd $ 965.5mil, however the actual figure remains undisclosed since for 13 of these orders, no price related detailed were disclosed.
In the bulkcarrier segment, it appears that despite the already reported orders of 8 units, Japanese investors rumored to be proceeding with speculative orders al local Japanese yards for standard bulkcarrier designs. In total, a number of 20 orders have been recorded to various Japanese yards i.e. Koyo, Imabari, I-S Shipyard and Shin Kasado Shipyard. This move seems to be giving a boost to the Japanese production, while according to our sources these units might be probably sold at a later stage or will be bareboated out by trading houses with purchase options.
In the container segment, activity remains vivid with Greek investors continuing to show their belief in the sector by investing in the post & small panamax sector, while the state owned company of India, Shipping Corporation of India contracted a 3,500teu unit at China’s Rongsheng Shenfei.
In the gas segment, Golar LNG and Ceres LNG (though Gaslog) continued their ordering spree by adding more units in their fleet. Lastly, the investments in the special projects, continue on a weekly basis. This week one Drillship and one Jack up Drilling Rig have been reported.

DEMOLITION MARKET
This week the demolition market, has been more active by 33% comparing to last week’s activity, with 24 vessels heading to the scrapyards of a total deadweight of 707,646 tons. Again this week despite the increase in terms of number of units sold for scrap, the total deadweight is by 16.7% lower than last week. The most popular destinations with the information revealed were India and China attracting 25% and 16.6% respectively of the activity, while for 50% of the reported deals the destination remains unknown.

GREEK PRESENCE
The week ended with the nine transactions in total concerning greek investments. In the secondhand market, just one sale of a 5000teu container vessel built 2003 and acquired at $ 55 mil concerned greek investments, while in the newbuilding market eight greeks appeared to have invested in new contracts.   More specifically, in the newbuilding market, Thenamaris is again in the spotlight with ordering 4 x  5023 container units from Hyundai Samho, while in the same shipyard Aeolos Management has placed an order for three 6,700 teu. In the gas tanker sector Ceres ordered one more LNG carrier of 155,000cum having on order now six such units. The total invested capital for the secondhand market is usd $ 55 mil, while for the newbuilding investments taking into consideration that the contract prices of the orders of Aeolos remains unknown, a total capital of $ 440mil has been calculated.