Ship owners appear to be rather active on the sale and purchase (S&P) market lately, especially when it comes to snatching modern and high caliber tonnage. Nevertheless, the overall activity both in the S&P and the newbuilding markets has slowed down considerably over the course of the past few weeks, mainly as a result of lower freight rates. According to the latest report from shipbroker Shiptrade & Services, “despite the overall S&P activity having slowed down mainly due to the freight market not able to justify investments in secondhand units, with the number of inspections taking place being relatively low compared to the start of the year, interest in high caliber units remains”.

The shipbroker’s enquiry Index has remained stable over the course of the past week, “with
a slight decrease of about 5%, something that is solely attributed to increased interest in Capesize bulkers and MR tankers. Taking a closer look, with the sole exception of the relevant enquiry index for Capes, which gained 20%, other dry indices faced significant losses, as enquiries for Handies decreased by 42%, those for Handymaxes & Supramaxes by 44%. Enquiries for Panamaxes and Kamsarmaxes remained at exactly the same levels with last week’s. Moving on to the wet sector, MR tankers were for yet another week the sector’s bright exception, with their enquiry index gaining an impressive 65%. However, none of the remaining indices followed the same direction: Panamaxes attracted less interest by 50%, Afras by 23%, Suezmaxes by 29% and VLCCs by 33%, with us having to take into consideration that absolute numbers are still single-digit ones”, Shiptrade noted.

In terms of the S&P activity, Shiptrade noted that there were a lot of transactions on the wet front, “as a total of 14 units found their new recipients. In this week’s most notable transaction, Euronav of Belgium have purchased 4 modern VLCCs for a total of $342 mill. In the Panamax segment, the 2008 built LR1 tanker “Liwa” was snapped up by Greek buyers for a price of $28 mill., with the 2-years-older Crude tanker “Neapolis” fetching $25 mill. from South American buyers. Other than that, Greeks have paid $74 mill. for two MR tanker resales ex SPP, both scheduled for delivery within 2015. On the dry front, H. Vogemann of Germany have emerged as the buyers of the two HMD built Handies we reported last week as sold through an auction, namely the “A Handy” and the “B Handy”, with another ex TMT owned unit, the 2011 built Kamsarmax “B Max” changing hands in a judicial sale for $24 mill. Oceanbulk have purchased another Post-Panamax bulker, the 2006 built “Eternal Salute” for $19.5 mill., following their recent purchase of her sistership, the ex “Shirakumo”, in June for $22 mill. Last, but not least, undisclosed interested have reportedly paid excess $18 mill. for the acquisition of the 2009 Japan built Handy “Scarlett”, the shipbroker said.

Meanwhile, in the newbuilding market, shipbroker Clarkson Hellas said that it was a relatively steady week in terms of volume ordering. “In Dry, Sungdong Shipbuilding have signed contracts with Teh-Hu (Hong Kong) for one firm plus one option 180,000 DWT Capesize, with delivery in the third and fourth quarters of 2016. Clients of Victoria Steamship are understood to have ordered three firm plus three option 64,000 DWT Ultramax at Nantong Hongqiang. This follows their previous order for the same quantity of Ultramax at Jiangsu Haitong last month, with these latest orders for delivery from late 2015 onwards. Just one order in tankers, with clients of Polembros Shipping contracting two firm plus two option 159,000 DWT Suezmax at HHI. Delivery of the firm vessels is within the first half of 2016 and options later in 2016 if declared. This week DSME have taken orders for a total of nine Arc 7 rated 172,000 CBM LNG carriers, with three units from a joint venture between CSDC & MOL and six for a JV between Teekay & China LNG Shipping Int. Delivery of the first units is due within 2018″, Clarkson Hellas concluded.

Finally, on the demolition market, Shiptrade & Services said that “India has been the top destination for the vast majority of market tonnage during the last week, mainly due to the fact that both the Bangladeshi and the Pakistani markets are seriously affected by incessant rains and the Ramadan. Indian levels are softened though and a further drop is expected with the monsoon season in full swing, but if fundamentals remain steady, the traditionally lower supply of tonnage during the summer period could result in prices picking up again, starting from autumn, with this being most probably the explanation of a few units being committed at firm numbers. Pakistan was unable to secure tonnage this week, despite the appetite that
has emerged among local buyers due to their inability to claim their market share during the past couple of weeks with Bangladeshi demand non-existent at present. Chinese demo yards remain busy solely with state owned tonnage taking advantage of the governmental subsidy, with the Turkish market following a stable path in terms of fundamentals, however activity has and is expected to slow down further this month, as local players enter into summer mode”, the shipbroker concluded.