Newbuilding Ordering Activity Picks Up Pace

The newbuilding market has picked up pace this week, with more orders being reported. In its latest weekly report, shipbroker Allied Shipbroking said that “the first full week of December brought a second healthy week of new orders. Good earning potential and strong second hand values have, to a great degree, helped in maintain interest for new orders in the tanker sector. However, last week’s bumper tanker orders seem to have satisfied buyers for now, leading to a slight slump in additions to the orderbook this week. Gas carriers have maintained their run of several orders per week, with no expectations of this stopping in the immediate term due to strong LNG trade fundamentals. Around 25% of new orders were for dry bulk vessels and these focusing on the Handysize size segment. Given the modest proportion of older vessels within this size class, coupled with the relatively good freight earnings performance noted over the past two years, this should not come as much of a surprise. It also continues the more recent trend of orders for smaller Handysize and Supramax vessels, that we have seen over recent months”.

In a separate note, shipbroker Banchero Costa added that “bits and pieces of conventional orders emerged last week, the main focus remained LNG orders. Starting from conventional segments, Greek Owners Evalend Shipping is mentioned having concluded two different orders one for 2 x 40,000 dwt handy BC (open hatch configuration) with delivery by 2024 and price of region $29.5mln each and the other for 2 x 50,000 dwt MR priced around $40mln each and delivery in 2025. Both orders were awarded to New Yangzijiang in China. Another Greek owner TMS is said to have signed LOI with New Times for the construction of 4 Suezmax tankers price around $70mln each basis deliveries end 2024 and 2025.

Changing sector, as mentioned above, the LNG orders keep on piling with China Merchants Energy Shipping declared options for 2 x 175,000 cbm LNG at DSIC priced at region $235mln each for delivery in 2H 2026 and beginning 2027. Talking about car carrier business China is taking the lead in building larger units now reached the capacity over 9,000 ceu. Chinese local manufacturer BYD selected China Merchants Heavy Industry for 4 x 9,400 ceu units, neither price nor deliveries emerged. Same yard also got LOI from China Merchants Energy shipping for 2 firm + 2 optional 9,000 ceu at region $149mln each. Also Japanese owners are moving to China for ordering car carriers, with an undisclosed party selecting Xiamen for 6 x 7,500 ceu for delivery in 2025 dual fuel LNG propulsion”.

Meanwhile, in the S&P market, Allied said that “despite turbulent conditions in the dry bulk markets, SnP activity in the last week was better than expected. Sales stemmed evenly from across the different size segments of the market, with two en-bloc sales in the Panamax and Capesize sectors taking place each. However, this should not be considered an indication of future buying appetite, as the dry market is still under heavy pressure.

With a weak economic outlook from China, as its trade looks to have dropped last month, combined with a recessive trend in the global economy, things don’t look overly exciting for dry bulker assets right now. In line with the bullish character of the market, assets in the tanker sector continue to change hands and we see their values continuing on an upward trajectory and the SnP activity remaining strong w-ow. Given the current market outlook, tanker freights should continue to support things in this direction, through the newly imposed trade barrier on Russian crude, keeping buying appetite at robust levels”, the shipbroker concluded.
Nikos Roussanoglou, Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide