Despite the fact that the past week was a bit slow in terms of newbuilding ordering activity, mainly as a result of the Chinese National Day, which saw the country’s shipyards shutting down for the week, newbuilding business jumped to 51 fresh new orders of a total deadweight of 1,966,629 tons, with bulk carriers leading the way with about 37% of the total volume, said Golden Destiny in its latest weekly report.
According to the Piraeus-based shipbroker, “the newbuilding business is up by 4 % from similar week’s closing in 2010, when 49 fresh orders had been reported with bulk carriers grasping 71.4% of the total ordering activity. In terms of invested capital, 46 orders reported at an undisclosed contract price with bulk carriers and offshore appearing the most overweight segments. In the bulk carrier segment, there has been again eager activity reported in all sizes with Chinese shipyards being on the frontline and some business also being revealed in the Japanese shipbuilding industry. An order came to light in the very large capesize segment for two units of 205,000dwt by Ship Finance Int of Bermuda placed in Yangfan Group of China at $60 mil each for delivery in 2013” said the report.
Similarly, “in the tanker segment, there were signs of activity this week with the MR sector making its presence again as Greek player, Consolidated Marine, has changed its order placed in Hyudai Mipo for two kamsarmax bulk carriers in two 52,000 dwt product carriers for delivery within 2012. Notable order was the placement of two shuttle tankers of 75,000dwt by Shanghai North Sea Shipping in Jiangsu Rongsheng for delivery in 2013 at an undisclosed contract price.
In the multi-purpose liner sector, there have been strong investments with the placement of two container Ro-Ro units by French Line Delmas in Hyundai Mipo Dockyard and two multipurpose Ro Ro cargo ships by Norwegian shipowners Nor Lines at a Chinese shipyard powered by natural gas” mentioned Golden Destiny.
Meanwhile, according to the shipbroker’s report “in the container market, Turkish box ship operator Arkas has placed an order for two 2,900 TEU units at Chinese shipbuilder STX Dalian for delivery in 2013, which are considered to be the largest ever vessels ordered by the Turkish player. In the post panamax segment, CMA CGM is said to be in talks with Jiangnan Changxing and Dalian Shipbuilding Industry in China for the contracting of up to 20 boxship units of 9,000-10,000 TEUs, financed by China’s Exim Bank. In the offshore sector, COSCO Nantong booked two versatile construction ships from TL Offshore, Malaysia for delivery in 2014. The owner is a subsidiary of the Sapuracrest Petroleum group and will pay $116.75 million for the first and $110.25 million for the second unit. Furthermore, Shinan H.I., South Korea, having recently run out of work, booked four platform supply vessels from undisclosed interests for delivery between May 2013 and June 2014” concluded Golden Destiny.
In a separate report, Clarksons mentioned that “as expected, this week has been rather quiet to say the least with the Chinese on National Day holidays all week. Following this period of rest and reflection it will be interesting to see how the Yards will approach the strategy for the last quarter of the Year and whether the story of the Chinese State Yards driving the pricing down will continue in dry and wet. With the continued development of new more economical designs in both wet and dry it will be interesting to see if this will help the Yards to tempt the owners to contract from the economically challenged countries in the West over the coming weeks. The joy for the Owners and the charterers of these new “eco” Vessels is that once delivered they typically can reduce bunker consumption by 10-20% against the Vessels being delivered today. With Bunker pricing currently in excess of USD 600 a tonne and no signs of an imminent let up it will certainly help the Owners have an easier job of fixing their ships against the ships currently on the water as will certainly be much more appealing!” concluded Clarksons.