S & P

In line with recent weeks, we continue to witness the majority of concluded sales coming from Japanese based owners. 

Clients of NYK have reportedly sold M/V OCEAN CREST (168,968 dwt 1998 blt Samsung HI) to clients of Swissmarine for region US$ 20.6m. 

Having been inspected by around 10 buyers last week in Taiwan, clients of Mitsubishi Ore invited offers this week on M/V SANTA ISABEL (158,387 dwt 1996 blt Sasebo HI) which has now been committed to Sinokor for US$ 17m. 

It is reported that COSCO has sold the Tess 45 M/V SEA BANIAN (45,724 dwt 2000 blt Tsuneishi) to other Chinese interests for about US$ 19m.

Finally, the open hatch M/V QUEEN FLOWER (30,848 dwt 1997 blt Minami) has been sold to Indian buyers for US$ 15.9m.  

In the Wet S+P side, activity was again limited this week.

The ex ETA controlled M/T ATLANTIC GALAXY (115,583 dwt 2005 blt Sanoyas) has been sold at public auction to German Buyers c/o Bernhard Schulte for US$ 34.9m. The last comparable Aframax sale was the ex Korea Line controlled unit 'BLUE JASPER' about 105,905 dwt, built Namura 2008, which was also sold at auction in July to Korean interests HMM at US$ 42.5m. We understand that there were a number of prospective buyers in attendance, however the Germans were the only ones to actually bid. The above sale does represent a slip in values relative to last done.

 Another sale rumoured in the market is that of the VLCC M/T SONGA CHELSEA (298,432 dwt 1995 blt Daewoo) which said to be sold to Indian buyers at US$ 24.5m.  

NEWBUILDING 

The market enquiry has been relatively subdued this week with a limited amount of new enquiry as Owners are still trying to gauge after their holidays where true value lies in newbuilding after the recent sales activity in the second hand market in both the dry and wet sectors. On the positive side of things it is encouraging to see that for the dry market the BDI has increased in excess of 20% so far this month.

Any further increase in dry activity would very much help the Chinese Yards with fresh orders, as we have discussed previously and being the core product of the Chinese newbuilding market. The larger Korean Yards are no doubt pleased that they continue to take orders and have options declared, thus allowing them to get closer to their year-end targets or in some cases exceed them. It is reported that Samsung are now over their year-end target having secured USD 14.2 Bln worth of business against an annual target of USD 11.5 Bln. Hyundai and DSME are also understood to now be over 80% of their respective year-end targets having taken orders for over USD 16 Bln and almost USD 9 Bln respectively. The story is sadly not so good for the Japanese Yards - with the Yen now trading at below 77 to the Dollar, the Japanese debt rating being downgraded by the ratings agency Moody¡¯s from Aa2 to Aa3 and now today their Prime Minister resigning, we sadly don¡¯t see the currency recovering to a level that the Japanese Yards so desperately need it to, to allow the Yards to competitively quote for export orders.

In terms of business reported as being concluded this week, Messrs COSCO Hunan have finally concluded an order for four x 76,000 dwt panamax bulkers at Guangzhou Huangpu Shipyard after the Yard apparently had an LOI in place for several months - this is somewhat reflected in the price whereby we understand it to be around USD 31 Mill and delivery from 1Q 2013. There have also been reports of two Owners, both ordering a pair of SDARI 36k dwt design handysizes at CSC Qingshan Shipyard. We understand these Owners to be OSL Shipping of Hong Kong with their vessels due to deliver in May and August 2013 and Wilmar Holdings of Singapore with deliveries again in August and secondly in October 2013 and the unit price for both Owners expected to be under USD 25 Mill per Vessel. In wet we understand that GSI Shipyard in China has taken an order from a domestic Owner, Messrs. Huahai Petroleum for one 48k dwt MR tanker with delivery penned for the middle of 2013, however as yet the price is unknown. Finally we understand at Samsung, in LNG that Clients of GasLog Ltd have exercised some options and contracted a further two units of 155,000m3 LNG Carriers, these ships will deliver in April and July 2015 and this now brings the Clients total LNG fleet up to eight Vessels..