Home / Shipping News / Hellenic Shipping News / LNG Tonnage in High Demand

LNG Tonnage in High Demand

LNG tankers are the “talk of the town” among ship owners, are the daily rates they command are allowing for significant profits. In its latest weekly report, shipbroker Banchero Costa said that in the newbuilding market, “the LNG tonnage is still very much in demand although the attention is now focused on the Chinese market where new licenses where given to local yards which are able to offer better deliveries than their S Korean competitors. A single ship deal was reported by TMS Cardiff Gas who ordered a VLGC at Hyundai Samho for delivery 2H of 2026. China’s Pacific Gas ordered 2+2 ethane carriers of 99,000cbm at Jiangnan, deliveries are set in 2025, but no price emerged so far. In continuation to his GG55 project, Grimaldi ordered 2 x 7,800 ceu car carriers at Jinling for deliveries in 2025. The order is for are ammonia ready ships and the reported price is around $100mln each. Japanese owners signed 2 x 66,000 dwt Ultramax at Yangzi-Mitsui, deliveries are set for 2024, surprisingly early compared to prevailing slots being proposed”.

Source: Banchero Costa

In a separate note, Allied Shipbroking noted that “the newbuilding market failed to impress during the past week or so, given the relatively mediocre number of fresh projects coming to light as of late. For the dry bulk sector though, despite the relative absence that had been noted for some time now, we noted some sort of movement taking shape (with two separate orders) for Ultramax units, placed to Chinese shipyards. It is true, that the recent volatility (accompanied with increased downside risk at the same time) in freight rates has been translated into higher volatility in buying appetite as well. Given this, we could expect new order levels to vary in terms of volume from time to time for the near-term. In the tanker sector, things appeared overall sluggish as well, despite the overall improved sentiment that has been noted surrounding this market for some time now. Notwithstanding this, we may well anticipate interesting projects to come through moving forward over the next few months or so. As for the other main shipping sectors, the Gas carrier market prevailed once again at a more vivid tone, with some new orders being placed thanks to a flurry of new employment projects that have been developed as of late”.

Source: Allied Shipbroking

Meanwhile, in the S&P market, Allied added that “on the dry bulk side, things moved on a firm tone as of the past week, given the increased number of units changing hands during the same time frame. At this point, we see interest remaining fairly robust and adequately distributed across most of the different size segments and age groups. Moreover to this, when thinking about the recent signs of downward resistance in terms of freight earnings, coupled with the recent softened asset prices (still though at historically high levels), this is hardly as disconnected as most would initially have thought. On the tanker side, as it was rather expected (to some degree at least), things resumed on a strong trajectory, with numered transactions appearing in the market. With both asset price levels and freight figures experiencing positive pressure for some period now, we can hardly expect any significant slowdown in the SnP market as well for the remaining part of the year”, the shipbroker concluded.

Source: Allied Shipbroking

Banchero Costa also noted the following: “A very busy week in the second hand market with a very large number of sales reported. Staring from modern ECO Kamsarmax two sisterships were sold to Greek Buyers, NORD GEMINI 82,000 dwt built 2017 Tsuneishi CebU to Neda Maritime for $30.7mln and BULK HOLLAND 82,000 dwt built 2017 Tsuneishi Cebu to Newport for region $30mln, both units are BWTS fitted. Many ECO-type Ultramax were also sold last week, namely the NORD BISCAY 62,000 dwt built 2019 Oshima for $32.4mln and the BERGE TRONADOR 61,000 dwt built 2020 DACKS for $36.8mln, both BWTS and scrubber fitted. Another Ultramax built 2011 Oshima (non-ECO) is reported sold to HK based Buyers, the ULTRA WOLLONGON 61,000 dwt built 2011 Oshima (BWTS fitted) for $22.5mln. Fairly active also the Supramax segment, the ECO-type Tess 58 OCEAN ADVENTURE 58,000 dwt built 2015 Tsuneishi (BWTS fitted) was sold for $23.5mln, whilst the PACIFIC HERO 58,000 dwt built 2012 Kawasaki (BWTS fitted) was rumoured sold to Aruna Shipping for $20.5mln. A few modern Handies were sold: the HIMAWARI K 38,000 dwt built 2015 Imabari (ECO-type and BWTS fitted) went to Greeks for $21.7mln and the LODESTAR PACIFIC 33,000 dwt built 2015 Shin Kochi (OHBS and BWTS fitted) went to Evalend for $19.8mln”.

Source: Banchero Costa

In the tanker market, the shipbroker said that “activity continued at a fairly strong pace. Starting from LR2 an interesting and rare resale deal emerged for 2 x 115,000 dwt scrubber fitted and BWTS fitted ex New Times deliveries in 1Q 2023 at $71.0mln to Navig8. Two Aframax ALBURAQ and SEA LEGEND, both around 112,000 dwt built 2008 Hyundai, were sold at $70.0mln en bloc to undisclosed interest. The LR1 segment saw 4 units (ALPINE PLYMOUTH, ALPINE PEMBROKE, ALPINE PACIFICA and ALPINE PEARL) all around 74,000 dwt built 2010/2011 Hyundai wer sold for $111.0mln en bloc to undisclosed buyers. We understand there is a 3 years time charter back around $23,000/d attached to the deal. Another vintage LR1, ARIEL 71,498 dwt built 2003 STX (BWTS fitted and scrubber fitted) was reported sold at $19.0mln to Middlie Eastern buyers. On the MR side a couple of transactions were reported as well: two sister vessels, ENERGY PROGRESS (46,606 dwt) and ENERGY PUMA (46,549 dwt) both built 2008 Sungdong were purchased by Teodor Shipping for $40.0mln, while the older AURORA EXPRESS 45,770 dwt built 2002 Minami Nippon was sold at $10.0mln to Seven Island”, Banchero Costa concluded.
Nikos Roussanoglou, Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide

Recent Videos

Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide Online Daily Newspaper on Hellenic and International Shipping