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Slight increase in numbers for Hellenic ship management companies says Petrofin Research |
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Wednesday, 01 July 2009 |
 The latest Petrofin Research report on the state of the country’s ship management (ship owners included) shows a total of 773 active and Hellas-based companies, which reflect the trend established during the previous years, that of steady increase, with 15 more companies being added this year. But the pace of increase was smaller than the year before, when 33 more companies had been added. The researchers noted that “our data capture the year 2008,
thus reflecting 9 months of booming S&P and newbuilding ordering
market. The last months of 2008, when recession hit suddenly, are only
partly reflected, and will certainly have an impact in the results of
our 2010 research”.
The most important development this year occurs in the area of fleet
age, whereby the average age of the entire Greek fleet irrespective of
type, tonnage or flag is reduced to
17.6 years of age, down from 18.4 last year, down from 18.71 years in
2007, 19.14 years of age in 2006 and 23 years in 2005. Steady downward
age trend reflects the influx of newbuildings, as well as the results
of the rigorous replacement of older vessels with younger tonnage over
the last years. The number of Greek overage fleets are down by 14. Last
year they showed an increase, reflecting the need for tonnage. It is
noteworthy that the smallest size category of 1-2 vessel fleets is 27
times higher than that of the larger fleet category. Thus, the bigger
the company, the less interest in older vessels.
Still, as Petrofin said, the drive towards larger and more modern
fleets continued in 2008. Although it is usually most pronounced for
the bigger sized owners, the trend was also prominent among smaller
owners. The excellent shipping market until 2008 had prolonged the
survival of approx 500 owners with overage vessels. However, the
current crisis will no doubt witness a significant reduction in their
number via scrapping and sales. Interestingly enough, it is the Chinese
that have been acquiring overage vessels recently, with Greeks opting
for younger vessels. Thus, the Greeks continue to focus on modern
vessels, as these have a longer life span and can better cope with
shipping cycles.
With the good markets from 2003 onwards, owners (especially small ones)
took advantage of the high vessel prices for their overage vessels and
continued selling or left the industry with some of them hoping to
return when the market would correct itself, which they expected in 1-2
years at most. However, as the market continued to boom, interest in
shipping exploded from shipping related and non-shipping related
sources including the rapid development of interest by the public
markets and private equity providers. In addition, some owners returned
to shipping having given up with the ‘wait and see’ theory and lastly a
number of companies split up to different ownership positions depending
on the varying strategies of each party. According to Petrofin, in
numerical terms, the small fleets account for 65% of the total, but
only 11.33% of the total capacity, as measured in deadweight tonnage.
Nikos Roussanoglou, Hellenic Shipping News.
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