Dry Bulkers In Demand After Market Rally

The market for dry bulk carriers, both newbuildings and second hand, has heated up considerably on the back of strong sentiment exhibited in the freight market of late. In its latest weekly report, shipbroker Allied Shipbroking said that it was “a rather interesting week for the dry bulk sector, inline somehow with the overall positive momentum that is being portrayed in the freight market as of late. At this point, we are seeing a robust jump in interest in the Capesize market (even if it is still at an early stage), while given the overall upward direction, it wouldn’t be surprising to see a fresh flurry of new orders coming to light pretty soon. Moreover, a positive week, in terms of volume, was also due in the tanker sector, with some interesting deals coming to light these past few days (mostly in the larger size segments), nourished at the same time, by the overall positive attitude still being shared for most of the tanker freight market. With all other sector being fairly quite, the overall total volume reported this week was still relatively soft. Yet given the recent spark to life, the rest of the summer period may well prove to be more active than what we have typically become accustomed to”, Allied said.

In a similar note, Banchero Costa said that “in the tanker market, Wah Kwong signed 2 x VLCC (around 307k dwt) at Dalian with delivery during 2021. Price reported to be around $85 mln each. CSIC Leasing will take part in the deal. In S.Korea, Sinokor moved for 2+2 (optional) LR2 at Samsung and Finnish company Neste signed at Hyundai 2 x 113,000 dwt ice class 1A Aframaxes for delivery in the second half of 2021. Vessels to be fitted with LNG dual fuel technology and price to be close to $70 mln each. Nisshin Kaiun signed 4 x stainless steel 33,000 dwt chemical tankers at Nantong Xiangyu shipyard. Deliveries to start from May 2022. In the dry market, Tsuneishi received an order from Nissen Kaiun for 10 Handysize 42k dwt each. Five each will be built at Zhoushan facility and the rest at Cebu facility. Price reported to be around $250 mln”, the shipbroker noted.

Meanwhile, in the S&P market, Banchero Costa said that “last week saw an increasingly interest in Handy bulkers and several transactions materializing. Starting from modern tonnage the “KING CANOLA” 28k dwt 2013 built Imabari was sold from Japanese owners to Greek Newport SA for a price region $8.5 mln, evidence of the discount of the smaller dwt compared to other 2 sales of 2 x 32k dwt 2010 built Hakodate, sister ships, sold by Lauritzen to clients of Taylor Maritime. The ships are the “EMMA BULKER” & “LOUISE BULKER”, price of $9.5-9.7 mln each, enbloc deal. A 32k dwt Handy 2005 Shin Kurushima, the “GEA”, was sold to Greek based buyers for a price of $6.85 mln, which evidences a sensible discount to last sale of “IVS KAWANA” (the deal was likely fixed before the recent market uptrend). Otherwise other dry bulk sales saw the German controlled Dolphin57 “HAMMONA KORSIKA” 57k dwt 2010 built Hantong done at $10.5 mln and the insolvency “HERMANN-S” Dolphin57 2009 built Hantong for $9 mln to Singapore based buyers. On the tanker front, few VLCCs got sold: the “RIDGEBUTY EAGLE” around 309k dwt 2002 built Sansung at $28.5 mln and the “APOLLONIA” around 310k dwt 2003 built Samsung at region $31 mln to Singapore based Buyers. Two sales were concluded in the product tanker segment, the “CORAL STARS” 37k dwt 2004 built Shina (shallow draft and trading dirty) reported done at $8.4 mln and the Krisjanis Valdemars around 37k dwt 2007 built HMD (ice class 1b) for $11.25 mln to Chemikalien”.

Allied added that “on the dry bulk side, interest for dry bulk tonnage has remained on an upward trajectory, rather attuned with the overall bullish mood that the freight market has been currently under. Notwithstanding this, we haven’t witnessed an excessive SnP market as of yet, with the Capesize segment being relatively quiet at this point. Most deals being materialized these past few days involve units of the medium and smaller size segments. On the tanker side, the scene in the market stayed at relatively similar levels, with a fair volume of transactions coming to light, but seemingly constrained at this point. Nevertheless, VLCCs have been in relatively hot demand, mostly for vintage units, while the MR market has eased back a bit. All-in-all, given the current state, we may well expect many interesting deals to come through in the near term, with some ups and downs in-between”, the shipbroker concluded.
Nikos Roussanoglou, Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide