A positive sign for the shipping market is that new building orders have slightly quieted down over the past few weeks. That said, according to the latest weekly report of shipbroker Allied Shipbroking, this applies to most sectors of the shipping market (most types of ships) as there was some activity in the dry bulk and tanker sectors.
Specifically, interest and relative newbuilding activity was displayed for the Kamsarmax and Ultramax ship size types. This may be due to the fact that bigger sized vessels- that is, the Capesize market- experience notable volatility and thus owners/investors are focusing on more stable performers of late such as the aforementioned Kamsarmax and Ultramaxes.
Furthermore, the tanker sector has witnessed- as reported- a ”rejuvenated appetite” on behalf of some Greek ship buyers with the recent new building order of 4 suezmax tankers.
Apart from the above though, limited action is seen in the other sectors of the shipping market.
However, considering the overall fair bit of new building activity over the past few months, it is noteworthy that the new building prices remain relatively stable as displayed in the below graphs from Allied Shiprbroking.
At the same time, there is still some second ship purchasing in the S & P market, despite the downward trend of the market and even the recent unexpected plunge of the BDI specifically. It must be clarified though that, for the dry bulk sector, the focus is more on the Panamax and Supramax vessel size types. For the tanker sector also, there are S & P deals made both in the crude oil and product tanker segments. The prospects for both of these sectors seem to be positive in the coming month too. The S & P activity of both of these main sectors are graphically displayed below from Allied Shipbroking.
Regarding the vessels current commercial value, Vesselsvalue reported that tanker prices are increasing in all middle age tankers types/sizes. As far as the dry bulk sector is concerned, the same applies specifically to commercial value of the Supramax ship size vessels currently in the market. The below chart from Vesselsvalue evidences the same.
Source: ”Newbuilding Orders Quiet Down”,29/11/18. Nikos Roussanoglou, Hellenic Shipping News worldwide.
Reference: Hellenic Shipping news
