In Hellenic Shipping News 09/11/2016
Ship owners around the world seem to have made up their minds, that the only viable option for placing a newbuilding order these days has to be in the tanker segment. In its latest weekly report, shipbroker Allied Shipbroking noted that “the flow of new orders in the tanker sector shows good signs of continuing at its current pace, though things can’t be said to have an equally positive note for all other sectors. Sentiment amongst potential buyers of newbuildings has surely reached an all time low for most ship types, especially as the average trading life expectancy has dropped for all ship types and earnings continue to remain close to bottom in sectors such as that of Dry Bulkers and Containerships. Competition amongst shipbuilders for the few interest circulating on the tanker front has intensified considerably, with much effort being put on the availability of financial support even if it is not in the traditional mortgage based sense, while many have also offered a lot of extras at no extra charge. Being that few orders are available to take, most are looking for the higher spec/higher priced units, putting more focus on the larger product tankers (LR2s & LR1s) rather then crude carriers which leave comparably lower margins per unit”, said Allied Shipbroking.
Meanwhile, in a separate newbuilding report, Clarkson Platou Hellas noted that “in Tankers, it came to light previous week that Sungdong have won an order for one firm plus one optional 115,000 DWT Aframax Tankers from Vision Tankers. The firm vessel is set for delivery within 1Q 2018 and the optional vessel will deliver within 2Q 2018, if declared. Odfjell ASA have announced an order from Hudong Zhonghua for four firm plus four optional 49,000 DWT Stainless Steel Chemical Tankers with 33 tanks. The first vessel will be delivered in June 2019 and the rest of the vessels will follow with 3 month intervals. In other sectors, Crystal Cruises Inc have extended their order at MV Werften Stralsund by ordering two firm 20,000 GT Cruise Ships for delivery in 2020 and 2021. These will be the 2nd and 3rd vessels in the series and will be able to carry 200 passengers. Finally, Azerbaijan Caspian Shipping Company have announced signing a contract with Baku Shipyard for two 5,540 DWT RoRo Freight/Passenger vessels. Being delivered within 2019, the duo will be able to carry 100 passengers, 56 rail carriages and 50 trucks”, concluded Clarkson Platou Hellas.
In the S&P markets, shipping valuations’ expert VesselsValue noted that “VLCC Values have firmed across both modern and older tonnage. The VK Eddie (305,300 DWT, 2005, Daewoo) sold to Euronav from Sincere Navigation Corp for USD 39 mil vs VV value of USD 32.5 mil. The Front Century (311,200 DWT,1998, Hyundai Heavy Ind) sold to Kunlun Shipping from Ship Finance International for USD 18.7 mil vs VV value of USD 15.24 mil. All other Tanker sectors remain stable”, said VV.
In the dry bulk market, VV noted that “Capesize values across all ages have softened this week and modern Panamax values have firmed. The Gran Trader (180,000 DWT,2012, Sungdong) was sold by Nisshin Shipping to Capital Maritime Trading for USD 22.5 mil vs a VV value of USD 25 mil. The Hyundai Princess (81,800 DWT,2016, Jiangsu New Yangzijiang) and the Hyundai Grande (81,800 DWT,2017, Jiangsu New Yangzijiang) were sold by H Line Shipping to Chartworld Shipping for USD 18.9 mil and USD 20.1 mil respectively vs a VV value USD 17.23 mil and USD 18.26 mil. All other bulker sectors remain stable. Containers have softened across all sectors and ages”, VV concluded.
According to Allied meanwhile, “on the dry bulk side, activity softened slightly this week, though with minimal shift in terms of buyer’s size segment interest. We are still seeing a fair flow of Panamaxes and Supramaxes changing hand every week, though given the most recent transactions noted it doesn’t seem as though there is not much interest right now for any price hikes, while most of the sales have focused around the relatively lower priced older units. On the tanker side, the market came to life, with activity increasing considerably compared to what we had been seeing over the past couple of months. We started to see a considerable number of crude oil carriers changing hands after a fair market pause. While things in the product tankers range seemed to continue as we have been used to with prices also holding their levels a lot better then in the larger crude oil carriers”, said the shipbroker.
Nikos Roussanoglou, Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide
