GMS Week 15 – CREEPING UP!

Some frantic buying ensued this week as the upcoming monsoon season and annual budgets begin to close in across the various subcontinent locations, both of which are expected within the next 4 – 6 weeks or so.

Once again, Bangladesh is leading the way with most of the buying, particularly for a majority of the large LDT Capesize bulkers, VLOCs and containers on offer. However, there have also been some interesting sales into India, particularly one container vessel that was sold for a massive USD 480/LDT this week!

Pakistan has also been creeping up of late as demand grows markedly following over six months of excruciatingly inert buying. However, local offerings still remain among the lowest across the subcontinent, even though there are signs of life starting to emerge once again.

Finally, as steel plate prices soften in Turkey whilst the Turkish Lira plummeted this week, local sentiments weakened further as increasing declines are expected / feared in the week(s) ahead.

As port reports start filling up in India and Bangladesh after an extremely busy last month, we can only speculate on just how much longer this aggressive buying will last. The lingering feeling is that end Buyers in Bangladesh want to import vessels before the budget is expected on June 5th, in fear of potential duties / taxes being imposed on the steel sector that would make it more expensive to purchase ships, thereby lowering local offerings.

For week 15 of 2019, GMS demo rankings / pricing for the week are as below.

Source: GMS Weekly