GMS Week 17 – COVID SCOURGE!

The Covid scourge continues to afflict India with cases now breaching a record 320,000 per day and deaths approaching nearly 3,000 per day, as hospitals turn away patients and oxygen supplies are starting to run out.

The world of shipping and ship recycling of course takes a back seat during this difficult time, with recycling yards shut as any available oxygen in the country is presently being diverted to battle the virus.

Steel prices have started to cool off since, as product fails to shift from local yards and there is no telling when normal activities may resume amidst the ongoing lockdowns in the hardest hit states.

It therefore is somewhat surprising to see End Buyers still looking to buy vessels given that vessel deliveries, customs services for boardings and clearances, and repatriation of crews / flights out of India are an ongoing uncertainty.

Certainly for ‘as is’ deliveries, other countries are now shutting borders for Indian crew, placing many previously agreed deals in jeopardy.

Bangladesh and Pakistan have not been as badly hit as India, even though cases continue to rise there and it is now a desperate race against time to get vaccines rolled out across the sub-continent, to try and halt what is an exponential surge.

Covid cases in Turkey continue to climb too whilst the local market fundamentals are still lingering around the same region as those over the last couple of weeks, as Turkish vessel prices hold their ground.

For week 17 of 2021, GMS demo rankings / pricing for the week are as below.

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Source: GMS