The familiar theme of the year so far, repeated itself for yet another week. Ship owners opted for more dry bulk second hand tonnage, as the current conditions of increased uncertainty, certainly don’t favor any kind of long-term investment. In its latest weekly report, shipbroker Allied Shipbroking noted that it was “a very active week for the dry bulk market, with a remarkable number of units changing hands. The improved sentiment and the current freight rate levels have played a pivotal role in this rising path. Focus was given primarily to the Supramax and Handysize segments this past week, with 64% of transactions being of these size classes. With second-hand prices softening and the buyer confidence improving, we expect interest to remain vivid, with the volume of transactions likely to be affected by the usual summer lull period. On the tankers side, it was a quiet week with very few deals emerging. The reported transactions included only product tankers, reflecting the much better outlook held for this sub segment compared to the crude oil market. Prices have also posted some slight corrections, but it seems that this is not enough to attract buyers just yet. However, we expect buying interest to return to the market sooner or later, especially if freight rates start posting gains once again”.

In a separate note this week, shipbroker Banchero Costa added that “in the dry segment, from Japan Km Yokahama 83,000 dwt built in 2011 at Sanoyas was sold for $15 mln after 7 buyers carried out inspection in Hamburg. Some weeks ago three BW Kamsarmax were reported sold en bloc: it seems that the deal failed and now 2 of them BW Barley 83,000 dwt built in 2010 at Sanoyas, BW Einkorn 81,000 dwt built in 2010 at Universal were sold to client of Centrofin at $14.5/14.2 mln and one BW Acorn 82,000 dwt built in 2010 at Oshima gone to German Buyers at $13.8 mln including TC back. A modern Japanese Ultramax Ocean Jorf 61,000 dwt built in 2016 at Iwagi was sold for $19 mln to Greek buyers. Back in April Kifissos and Ilissos 63,000 dwt built in 2019 at Shin Kasado were sold at $26.5 mln each. Chinese buyers were on buying mood for Supramax units during the week: Ithomi and Parnon 57,000 dwt built in 2011 at Qingshan were sold at $15.5 mln en bloc and Sun Lucia 56,000 dwt built in 2012 at Jiangsu Hantong at $9.2 mln. One month ago, Suprastar 57,000 dwt built in 2011 at Qingshan was reported at $7.3 mln. In the Handysize segment, a 10 years old unit Sam Eagle 32,000 dwt built in 2010 at Jiangsu was bid for auction in Corpus Christi and gone to client of GMS for $4.74 mln. Not much activity recorded in the tanker segment: a 2007 Aframax Bergina 105,000 dwt built in 2007 by Tsuneishi was sold at $19 mln. Back in May, Seapacis 105,000 dwt built in 2007 at Namura was sold for $15.5 mln. A MR1 Krongborg 40,000 dwt built in 2007 by SLS was reported at $12.25 mln basis delivery Far East”.

Meanwhile, in the newbuilding market, Allied said that it was “an interesting week for the dry bulk newbuilding market, while at the same time a relatively flat week for the tanker segments. The improving sentiment in the dry bulk market has led for a sharp increase in interest to emerge for the newbuilding option, during a period were prices have been following a declining path. Interest was focused this past week on the smaller sizes, as they provide much more flexibility, especially during a period of high uncertainty in the global markets. We expect interest to remain relatively vivid, but transactions may well pause during the summer break, with a fresh series of orders likely to be anticipated from September onwards. In the tanker market, despite the fact that we saw no new orders emerge last week, the overall market fundamentals are still holding at fairly healthy levels. This is reflected in the increased number of enquires that have been witnessed of late, even if few of these have yet to fully materialize over into concluded deals. The drop noted recently in newbuilding prices is also likely to play a key role here too, with a further boost interest likely to be generated by speculators looking to take advantage of the low price opportunities that have emerged”.

On the other hand, Banchero Costa added that it was “not a particularly active week in terms of newbuilding orders to report. The Greek company Tsakos Energy Navigation ordered 1 + 2 optional DP2 Suezmax shuttle tankers of about 150,000 dwt at Daehan for a price of $76 mln each. The cost was roughly $30 mln above a conventional Suezmax unit. In the larger VLCC segment, Pan Ocean Co.ordered a second unit at Daewoo for a price of $90 mln. The ship will comply with IMO’s EEDI (Energy Efficiency Design Index) Phase 2 Index. In the dry sector, Chinese Shipyard New Dayang received two different orders for Supramax units on account of Zhejiang Shipping Group, and for Panamax units on account of Shishi Dingsheng Shipping: the latter includes two options. Delivery is scheduled for 2022 but no price available”, the shipbroker concluded.
Nikos Roussanoglou, Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide