Ship owners’ “appetite” for more second hand vessels continued unabated during the past week. In its latest weekly report, shipbroker Allied Shipbroking said that “on the dry bulk side, we experienced another modest week in terms of transactions taking place, inline somehow with the recent improved momentum from the side of earnings at the same time. It is true that the recent hefty corrections in freight rates has derailed sentiment amongst buyers and sellers in the market, a situation that has been already reflected in a hefty correction in asset price levels as well. Given the current overall clouded scene, we can anticipate a rather more volatile activity flow to emerge for the coming period, especially if the bid-ask spread in assets widens as well. On the tanker side, the SnP market continued on a strong pace for yet another week, given the plethora of fresh deals appearing in the market. Here, the market’s direction has completely shifted in a whole other direction for some time now, and this has already translated over to increased volumes across the different age groups and asset classes, as well as, to an upward lift in asset prices”.

In the tanker segment, Banchero Costa reported that “VLCC PRINCESS MARY 306,200 dwt blt 2004 Mitsubishi (BWTS fitted) is sold in excess of $48mln to undisclosed buyers and the older PRIDE 299,986 dwt blt 1998 Hitachi was sold for $24.5mln to undisclosed buyers. In the Suezmax sector NORDIC COSMOS 159,999 dwt blt 2003 Samsung was reported sold for $31mln, while the CAP GUILLAUME 158,880 dwt blt 2006 Samsung (BWTS and Scrubber fitted, Ice class 1C) was sold for $35mln. The Aframax PHOENIX BEACON 105,525 dwt blt 2011 Hyundai was reported sold to Performance Shipping for $35mln with delivery in December 2022. Activity was reported also in the MR segment, where the ENDO BREEZE 46,764 dwt blt 2003 Brodotrogir (BWTS fitted) was reported sold for $14mln to undisclosed buyers and the DEE4 FIG 44,995 dwt blt 2011 Onomichi (BWTS fitted) was sold to United Overseas Group for $26.5mln. The BALTIC ADVANCE 37,332 dwt blt 2006 Hyundai was sold to undisclosed buyers for $16mln and the modern SINERGY 34,820 dwt blt 2020 (BWTS fitted) was reported sold to undisclosed buyers for $31mln”, the shipbroker concluded.

Meanwhile, in the newbuilding market, Allied said that “newbuilding activity moved at relatively vivid levels during the past week given the good flow of activity that came to light. The gas sector managed to acquire the ‘’lion share’’ for this week which comes in line with the good forward market sentiment that still prevails for this sector as of late as well as the high performance noted in terms of earnings. The volume of the fresh orders within the tanker sector appeared considerable tight, especially while compared to the previous week and this comes hardly in line with the overall positive performance of the freight market as of late. On the dry bulk front, we did not witnessed signs of activity for yet another week, likely as part of the excess volatility and uncertainty noted in the freight market as of the past few months”.

Banchero Costa added that “Knutsen OAS Shipping placed an order for 9 x VLGC around 170,000 cbm at Hyundai Samho with delivery during 2025 and 2026, the price reported is $224.5mln per unit. In the tanker market Atlas Maritime agreed with Daehan Shipyard 2 more Aframax around 115,000 dwt, the total now is of 5 vessels under construction at the shipyard; deliveries are expected by the end of 2024 and the price should be around $64mln. The Japanese owner Nisshin Kaiun contracted 2 Ultramax around 63,500 dwt at Nantong Xiangyu with delivery in 2024”, the shipbroker concluded.

Source: Hellenic Shipping News