Newbuilding Activity and S&P Sales In Full Swing

Shipowners have picked up their investment plans, as both newbuilding orders and acquisitions of second hand tonnage have been strong lately. In its latest weekly report, shipbroker Intermodal noted that “strong contracting activity resumed in the past days as well, with dry bulk deals making up for the majority of recently reported firm orders for a second week in a row, while owners currently investing in the sector via a newbuilding continue to ignore bigger bulkers of PostPanamax size and above. As far as newbuilding prices are concerned these appear to have stabilized since the beginning of the spring, with average levels for all dry bulk sizes and almost all tanker sizes quoted well above last year’s average prices. The MR newbuilding price is the only one that has so far missed the upward momentum, although given the preference of owners towards this size we could see a premium being noted for the MR newbuilding price s as well sooner rather than later. In terms of recently reported deals, Greek owner, Pantheon Tankers, placed an order for two firm and two optional Aframax tankers (115,000 dwt) at SWS, in China for a price in the region of $44.8m and delivery set in 2020-2021”.

However, in an earlier released weekly note, Allied Shipbroking commented that “a limited number of new orders were seen last week, with the Catholic Easter holidays likely playing their part. Meanwhile, interest for new orders in the dry bulk has eased back lately, as uncertainty noted in the trade of several commodities has likely pushed owners to take a more conservative stance. This past week seems to have been an exception to this as we witnessed 4 new orders across different sized segments. However, given that current earnings remain at subpar levels, it is unlikely that we will see any quick ramp up in activity soon, while any new interest that does emerge is likely to stay clear of the Capesize segment for the time being. In the tanker market there was no new deal to emerge last week, but given the better underlying drivers of supply and demand that are starting to take shape, we expect more and more interest to be drawn to this direction adding further tonnage to the orderbook. With product tankers looking primed to benefit considerably from the optimistic market outlook that is currently being portrayed, we are likely to see this segment being a staple source of fresh buying interest over the coming months”, Allied said.

Meanwhile, in the S&P market, Allied added that “on the dry bulk side, a firm flow of activity took place the last couple of days. Taking into account what we have seen the past few weeks, the overall market seems to be amidst a rebalancing taking shape. The “highlight” of the week is the small spark of life in the Capesize market, which was in a total clampdown for many months now, following somehow inline with the more positive signs seen in the freight market this past week or so. On the tanker side, we witnessed a considerable ease back in volume. Notwithstanding this, buying appetite seems to be still there and ample, especially for the Suezmax tonnage, shifting at the same time the focus from the MR, which had been dominating the second hand tanker market for many months now. All-in-all, being in the midst of the Easter Holiday break, we may well see sluggish mode transpire over the following days, before things fire up once again”.

Separately, Intermodal added that “SnP activity remains healthy, with the majority of rumored deals concerning dry bulk vessels and with the majority of Buyers currently investing in the sector focusing almost exclusively on Supramax and Handysize candidates. In the tanker sector we had the sale of the “MARAN CAPELLA” (159,713dwt-blt ‘98, S. Korea), which was sold to U.A.E based owner, Kasco, for a price in the region of $11.5m. On the dry bulker side sector we had the sale of the “SHINYO CHALLENGER” (184,887dwt-blt ‘02, Japan), which was sold to Chinese buyers, for a price in the region of $12.0m”, the shipbroker concluded.
Nikos Roussanoglou, Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide