In Hellenic Shipping News 07/05/2015
Activity in the second hand ships market appears to be heating up as ship owners are looking more active and looking to exploit potential investment opportunities, especially in the dry bulk market. According to shipbroker Intermodal’s latest market report, after the first four months of the year, one can note that after a rather quiet January, things have gradually started to pick up in terms of SnP activity, especially for dry bulk sale candidates, which have stayed for sale for quite some time, or even withdrawn altogether from the market, as a result of low demand.
According to Intermodal’s SnP broker, Mr. George Iliopoulos, “as the first quarter came to an end, we started seeing a rebound in activity with a number of prominent Greek owners once again inspecting modern Panamax/Kamsarmax/Supramax and it seems that we could now be at a turning point as far as dry bulk asset values are concerned. A representative sale of this recent trend is the “TORM ISLAND” (82kdwt blt 10 Japan), which gathered a lot of interest and was eventually sold at levels in xs of USD 18.0m, which is around 7% higher than what her sister vessel “TORM TRADER” (82kdwt blt 10 Japan) managed to fetch about a month earlier. In addition the “TORM ISLAND” was rumored to be inspected by more than 10 owners, most of which were Greek who were sitting on the sidelines during the past couple of years and now seem to have turned their interest in modern tonnage that seems to be on a substantial discount”, Iliopoulos said.
He added that “looking at the latest sales one could be reservedly optimistic that prices appear to be stabilizing, while the most recent sales are definitely not below the respective last dones, which is pretty much what we were seeing during the past six months. This is without a doubt a positive sign as the free fall of dry bulk asset prices had caused a mini panic all around, and while it is still uncertain how things will evolve it is currently proving a much needed breather to the market. At the same time we are noticing that as far as modern sale candidates are concerned, competition between Buyers seems strong, which is resulting in higher prices in the last two Kamsarmax sales that took place. Nonetheless if one compares these prices with Sellers ideas for similar tonnage in spring last year, it is evident why current prices appear attractive”, said Intermodal’s broker.
As an example, he cited a 5-yr old Japanese Kamsarmax which was sold at around USD 28.0m in April 2014, which is a hefty 55% higher than the levels for similar tonnage with SS/DD passed today. “At the same time it is also interesting to see that the number of up to 10-yr old Supramax up to Panamax Japanese candidates on the market is exceptionally small which is resulting to even higher competition for these ships. Saying that, when it comes to Chinese tonnage, the last six sales that took place during the past month were indeed low, with a couple of representative examples being the “HUI AN HAI”(32kdwt blt 10 China) which was sold at USD 6.8m and the “NEW SAILING STAR” (32kdwt blt10 China) which was sold for even less at around USD 6.5m”, said Iliopoulos.
He concluded his analysis by noting that “given the pressure the freight market remains under, it seems that prices are showing some sort of resistance for now. The million dollar question remains whether this is the bottom or if there is more downside. But if one looks at recent sales together with Buyers’ behavior on the SnP side lately, these are both hinting that market belief is that a bottom has been reached or is about to be reached. The sales that will take place next will obviously clear up any doubt”.
Meanwhile, in the SnP market this week, Intermodal said that “May kicked off with impressive volumes of SnP activity across both tankers and bulkers, while it was interesting to finally see some Cape sales being reported in the market. On the tanker side, we had the en-bloc sale of the “BLUE AQUAMARINE” (321,000dwt-blt 11, S. Korea) and the “BLUE GARNET” (321,000dwt-blt 11, S. Korea) which were picked up by Greek owner, Maran Tankers, for a price of US$ 80.0m each. On the dry bulker side we had the resale of the “SBI BELICOSO” (180,000dwt-blt 15, China), which went to Greek owner, Diana Shipping, for a price of $ 43.5m”.
