Dry Bulkers In High Demand

Demand for dry bulk carriers, both newbuildings and second hand, was in play over the course of the past week. According to the latest weekly report from Allied, “in contrast to recent weeks, the newbuilding market had an unusual amount of interest in dry bulk vessels, with contracting well in excess of the number of new tanker orders. Contracting was split between Panamax/Kamsarmax and Ultramax vessels, with nine firm orders in the case of the former and five in the latter. These vessels are to be Chinese built except for one ultramax to be constructed by Tsuneishi Cebu in the Philippines. Hengli Heavy Industry’s four vessels mark a significant milestone as the first contracts from outside of their parent company, from which they have several vessels on their orderbook, following the yard’s return to the newbuilding market last year. On a similar note, Qingdao Yangfan is several years into its own return from bankruptcy and is set to deliver two 5,900 teu vessels to Danaos Shipping in 2025. Several other yards across the Far East are increasing capacity by leasing and rebooting mothballed facilities. Given the limited tanker and bulker orderbook, this increasing capacity could help moderate prices—and be profitable for particular yards– when the inevitable demand arrives”.

In a separate note this week, Banchero Costa added that it was a “very quiet week for conventional bulkers and tankers. Lack of orders in the dry sector whilst for tankers we registered only one option declared by Restis for a Suezmax at DH Shipbuilding for earlier delivery in 2024, priced at about $ 77 mln. To keep the container orderbook busy, Maersk signed a LOI with Yangzijiang Shipbuilding for up to 12 x 8000 teu wide beam at strong price which, if confirmed, see the order finalising at about $ 115 mln each but including the methanol propulsion. Another major Greek player Danaos selected Yangfan for 2 x 5900 teu ice class 1A for a price of region $ 60 mln each. LNG sector keeps filling up the orderbook; NYK Line firmed 4 x 174.000cmb at HHI for a price of about $ 260 mln all backed by long term employment by EnBW Gas”.

Meanwhile, in the S&P market this week, Allied commented that “on the dry bulk side, the market prevailed active as of the past week, with numerous SnP transactions coming to light. At this point, we do not see any robust focus towards a specific vessel type, with all size segments and various age groups indicating fair interest among market participants. Year-to-date, asset prices, not only escaped the bearish pressure of the 2nd half of 2022, but also gained momentum (especially for Capesize).

Given that the freight market (for the mast majority of indices at least) did not share the same pace, a price idea gap between interested parties will unavoidably emerge in the near term. On the tanker side, things continued on “good” track as well, with enough liquidity being present in the market. Yet again, the smaller size segments took the lion share of overall SnP volume, with many MR and small product units changing hands”.

Banchero Costa also noted that in the dry bulk market there was quite a lot of activity. “The Taiwanese controlled mini-cape FPMC B 103 106,000 dwt 2011 STX Dalian (BWTS fitted – Scrubber) has been reported sold by far eastern Buyers at a price in the high $24s mill, while the Chinese built post-panamax CLAIRE Z 93,000 dwt 2009 Jiangsu Newyangzi (BWTS fitted) is rumoured sold to Chinese buyers at $16.3 mill. The Japanese built kamsarmax THALASSIC 81,000 dwt 2009 Universal (BWTS fitted) is reported sold to Greek Buyers at $ 20 mill; the ULTRA PANACHE 78,000 dwt 2011 Sanoyas (BWTS fitted) seems sold to Greek buyers for a price in excess of $ 20 mill. Still interesting activity in the supramax-ultramax segment: the wide beam eco-engine BULK ELECTRA 66,000 dwt 2015 Mitsui (BWTS fitted) is rumoured sold at $ 26.7 mill, apparently to Greek buyers. The VOKARIA 63,000 dwt 2020 COSCO (BWTS fitted) has been reported sold by Union Maritime to Korean Buyers at $ 35mill. UAE player Safeen is rumoured behind the acquisition of the MOUNT ATHOS 63,000 dwt 2014 Jiangsu New Hantong (BWTS fitted) at $ 25 mill including TC attached until end of 2024. After the purchase of the sistership Maestro Pearl, Devbulk seems to have found the agreement for the acquisition of the MAESTRO DIAMOND 37,000 dwt 2015 Saiki (BWTS fitted) at $ 22.5 mill. Greek controlled handysize ITHACA STOCKHOLM 35,000 dwt 2010 Nantong (BWTS fitted) has been rumoured sold to Indian Buyers at $ 11 mill”.

In the tanker market, “a noteworthy asset play was put in place by Indian shipowner Seven Islands Shipping, seller of the Suezmax CLASSIC 159,000 dwt 2005 blt Hyundai (BWTS fitted) sold at a price of $36.75m to undisclosed buyers. Norwegian shipowner Blystad sold the Aframax SONGA CORAL 106,000 dwt 2005 blt Koyo (scrubber fitted) for $35m to UAE buyers. In the MR segment, ADAMAS I 50,000 dwt 2009 SPP was sold for $24.5m to undisclosed buyers, while GREEN POINT 46,000 dwt 2003 STX was reported sold to UAE buyers for $13m. AYANE 17,000 dwt 2010 blt Turkter (BWTS fitted, Ice class 1A) was reported sold region $15m to undisclosed buyers”, Banchero Costa concluded.
Nikos Roussanoglou, Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide