The newbuilding ordering activity has remained quite subdued during the course of the past week, as holidays in China and Asia and an overall negative market sentiment, dampened investment appetite. In its latest weekly report, shipbroker Allied said that “the newbuilding market remained on a modest trajectory for yet another week, given the fair number of projects coming to light as of late. For the dry bulk sector, the bearish start at the beginning of the year has seemingly faded away, with activity having taken robust steps forward during the last couple of weeks or so. However, thinking about the current freight market momentum, coupled by the strong newbuilding asset price levels, we can expect steep fluctuations in both volume and buying appetite in the upcoming period. For the tanker sector, it was a rather disappointing week, given the uninspiring activity levels taking place. The current earning’s flat mode can hardly support an excessive boost in new ordering at this point. In other sectors, the containership market posted once again a solid presence, underlying its huge influence to the overall newbuilding market’s prevailing orbit”.

In a separate note this week, shipbroker Intermodal said that “the most recent reported contracting activity indicates a decrease compared to the volumes of deals the newbuilding market has witnessed during the past weeks. Indeed, only a handful of orders came to light with the preference still focused on the container sector, while an order for a pair of Ultramax units has also been completed.

More specifically, Hong Kong based KC Maritime, inked a deal for the construction of two 63,600dwt at COSCO Zhoushan for $31.0 million each. On the container front, Singaporean owner Pacific International Lines (PIL) ordered two firm plus two optional LNG fuelled 13,000teu boxships at Jiangnan Shipyard for $160,0 million each while Chinese manufacturer Loctek Ergonomic made its debut in ship owning by ordering one 1,800teu feeder at Huanghai Shipbuilding at a price of $32.6 million. Lastly, a small product tanker 17,999dwt was ordered by Sweden owner Furetank at Jinling shipyard. Price remains undisclosed while the unit will be able to run using LNG and liquid biogas fuels”, the shipbroker said.

Meanwhile, in the second hand market, Allied noted that “on the dry bulk side, the SnP market returned on a firm tone, given the strong number of vessels changing hands. This can be seen as a mere reflection of a single en-bloc deal noted in the Handysize market, a segment, at the same time, that gives steady support in the general volume of transactions as of late. It is true that the recent pressure in freight rates has brought many fluctuations in the SnP activity too, pushing higher the spread in price ideas and disrupting the liquidity of the market in the meantime.

On the tanker side, things continued on a robust orbit for yet another week, with a fair number of transactions taking place. As we have mentioned, we notice an upward momentum in buying appetite across the different size segments and age groups for some time now, suggesting a bullish stance across many interested parties. Notwithstanding this, given the flat orbit in spot earnings, we can hardly avoid a volatile period in the SnP market in the short-run (at least)”, the shipbroker concluded.

Source: Allied Shipbroking

Intermodal added that “the dry bulk and the tanker sectors continue to see a healthy volume of SnP deals while equally impressive was the activity noted in the container sector. In the tanker sector, we had sale of the “GUNDALA” (107,127dwt-blt ‘03, Japan), which was sold to Chinese buyers, for a price in the region of $11.7m. On the dry bulker side sector, we had the sale of the “SOUTH TRADER” (181,343dwt-blt ‘14, Japan), which was sold to Greek owner, Safe Bulkers, for a price in the region of $33.8m”.

Marex Media