In Hellenic Shipping News 03/08/2016
Nikos Roussanoglou, Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide
With newbuilding activity already at a near standstill since the start of the year, most of 2016’s trading activity in shipping was evident in the S&P market. However, as the summer lull is now upon us, activity is proving to be even more scarce. In its latest weekly report, Allied Shipbroking commented on the newbuilding ordering activity that there was limited action again this week, “though there seems to be a lot brewing under the surface. There are numerous rumors of orders being worked by several shipbuilders on the tanker side. HHI has been the most prominent of these along with some Chinese shipbuilders though not much has emerged just yet. At the same time there also seems to be an increasing interest amongst potential buyers for dry bulk Kamsarmaxes despite the trends being noted in the market. For the moment these seem to be centered more on price offers and may end up not materializing into something more. Nevertheless it is still interesting to note and may well be a sign of slightly better activity to be seen moving forward”, said Allied Shipbroking.
Meanwhile, in a separate newbuilding report this week, Clarkson Platou Hellas reported “two new orders this week with the focus remaining on the specialised tanker and ropax markets. POET Shipbulding (China) have taken an order from an unknown Singapore based owner for two firm 4,000dwt Asphalt / Bitumen carriers. Delivery of both vessels is due within the final quarter of 2017. Hyundai Mipo have secured an order for a single 31,000GT RoPax for Chinese/South Korean JV operator Weidong Ferry Co. Ltd. The vessel, which will have capacity for more than 700 passengers and container capacity of 320 TEU, is due to deliver in the second half of 2018 for deployment on the Incheon to Qingdao route”.
On a similar note, Allied said that “sale and purchase activity has begun to slow with the beginning of summer. Euronav have lead sales this week with a Resale duo acquired from Hyundai Samho. The two tankers (300,000 DWT) due for delivery later this year have been offloaded by Oceanbulk owned, Product Shipping and Trading for a firm sum of USD 84m each. Also sold in the tanker sector is the Sichem Edinburgh (13,200 DWT, 2007 Blt, 21st Century). The small clean tanker has been done at USD 11m”.
Ships’ values specialist VesselsValue said yesterday that “the bulker market has been much more active than tankers over the past week with a lot of older tonnage dominating the field. Daiichi Chuo have done their smallest Post Panamax, the JP Citrus (85,900 DWT, 2006 Blt, Oshima) at USD 8.2m SS due. Also in the panamax sector is the Golden Lyderhorn (74,200 DWT, 1999 Blt, Sasebo) at USD 3.65m and the Matilde Corrado (72,800 DWT, 2002 Blt, Samsung) bought by Korea Line Corp for USD 4.8m. These sales have pushed older values up signifcantly. The Supramax Peace (55,000 DWT, 2011 Blt, Zhejiang Jiantiao) has been sold at auction for USD 5.6m. Handy values have also seem movement this week following the sales of two Handymaxes, the Blue Sapphire (48,900 DWT, 2001 Blt, IHI) is done at USD 3.3m SS due and the Vipava (46,600 DWT, 1998 Blt, Oshima) is done at USD 2.55m. Two open-hatch Handys have been done En Bloc, the New Mariner and the New Laurel (31,000 DWT, 1999 Blt, Hyundai Mipo). Pan Ocean offloaded the vessels at USD 2.8m each bringing older Handy values down. A Bohai Handy owned by Armania Shipping, the Caju (29,400 DWT, 2000 Blt) has also been done this week for USD 2.45m. A single Boxship has been concluded this week raising July’s boxship deals to 2 against 31 in July 2015. The Sub Panamax Lilac (2,824 TEU, 2005 Blt, Hyundai Mipo) has been sold by KMTC for USD 8m, causing a slight down tick in values. The ship was offloaded by Armania shipping who also offloaded the Caju this week”, VV concluded.
In its report, Allied Shipbroking said that “on the dry bulk side, yet another fairly active week though with hints of further price rises to be seen on the horizon. Buying appetite has improved considerably despite the trends being noted of late in the freight market. We could possibly see a small pause or slowdown during mid-August, though as things stand now it doesn’t look likely to falter the overall upward trend that has been noted of late. On the tanker side, things started to liven up once more with a number of sale in the larger crude carriers and product tankers showing that there is still appetite amongst buyers despite the disappointing trends being noted in the freight market and omens of softer earnings to come. With the price of crude oil having started yet another downward trend these past weeks, its no surprise that interest has resurfaced for tonnage that can be converted and used for storage purposes”, the shipbroker concluded.
Nikos Roussanoglou, Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide
