More Container Ships on Order This Week

The container ship market took the lion’s share of the newbuilding activity this past week. In its latest weekly report, shipbroker Allied Shipbroking said that “the newbuilding market recorded an active week, with a good flow of fresh projects coming to light and covering all the key sectors as illustrated in the table below. After a long period of time, the containership market managed to regain the lion share of the market, coming in as a surprise when compared to the corrections noted from the side of earnings. The overall positive market sentiment for the tanker market helped drive a fair number of new orders over the past few days. On the dry bulk side, it seems that the slight uptick recorded in the freight market these past few days has helped provide a boost in newbuilding activity as well. All-in all, we can anticipate that given the positive sentiment that prevails in the market at this point, the anticipation is for a further boost in newbuilding interest, helping hold activity at a fairly vivid tone for the upcoming weeks”.

In a separate note, Banchero Costa added that “LNG orders were leading the activity once more, SK Shipping is reported to place an order for 4 x 180,000 cbm LNG carriers at Hyundai Samho for delivery during 2025 at undisclosed price. Knutsen OAS Shipping apparently declared options for 2 x 180,000 cbm LNG carriers at Hyundai Samho at price of $224.5 mln for dely 2025. Euronav is linked to a new contract of 2 x 160,000 dwt Suezmax Tankers at Daehan for delivery 2024 at $75 mln per unit.

On the dry side, Chellaram Shipping ordered 2 x 62,000 dwt Crown 63 Plus at Sumec, a New Dyang subsidiary at an undisclosed price and for delivery beg/mid 2025”.

Meanwhile, in the S&P market this week, Allied said that “on the dry bulk side, things prevailed on a modest tone as of the past week, given the relatively fair number of units changing hands. It is now explicit, that the SnP market is in a state of restabilizing, given the bearish pressure in terms of asset price levels, which is a mere reflection of the lack of clear direction noted in terms of freight earnings. It is rather tricky to argue at this point, how the SnP market will respond even on a short-term basis, with the transaction flow though, most probably remaining excessively volatile for the time being. On the tanker side, most anticipate (to some extent at least) activity to prevail on a more fervent tone for yet another week. As both asset prices and freight values continue gaining momentum and appear more robust, we may well expect the SnP market to respond positive to this trend as well, with a fair flow of fresh deals coming to light during the remaining part of the year”, the shipbroker noted.

Banchero Costa added that “during the week a vintage Capesize MV Cougar abt 178,000 dwt built 2002 Mitsui (SS DD due April 2023) has been sold at $13.75mln to Turkish buyer. After offers were invited last week the Japanese controlled Kamsarmax MV Buenos Aires abt 83,000 dwt built 2011 Sanoyas (BWTS fitted) was sold at $21mln. The Greek controlled MV Pantelis abt 74,000 dwt built 2000 Tsuneishi (SS due 2025 BWTS fitted) was reported at $9.7mln, two months ago the MV Christina IV abt 73,000 dwt built 2000 Sasebo was done at $12.5mln. In the Handy segment the MV Ortolan Alpha Strait abt 34,000 dwy built 2010 Seko (SS due 2025 BWTS fitted) was done at $15mln to Chinese buyers In the tanker market after offers were invited last week CPP trading LR1 MT Amber and MT Azurite abt 73,000 dwt built 2008 New Century (SS/DD/BWts due August 2023) were done at $18.4mln each to Turkish buyers. In the MR segment MT Laperouse abt 50,000 dwt blt 2011 GSI (SS 7/26 DD 10/23 – BWTS fitted) was sold at region $26mln basis dely October/November to Greek buyers, last month Ridgebury Rosemary, Ridgebury Alexandra Z and Ridgebury Cyndi A abt 50k blt 2009 SPP were reported at $22mln each”, the shipbroker concluded.
Nikos Roussanoglou, Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide