Asian owners have been more active in the newbuilding market during the Festive period. In its latest weekly report, shipbroker Allied said that “on the bulker side, Mitsui OSK Lines are responsible for the main deal this week, with an order for 5 Newcastlemax vessels split across Qingdao Beihai and Imabari. Newcastlemax vessels have proven popular this year and have accounted for around 30 of the 42 Capesize or larger dry bulk vessels contracted this year. For MOL, these vessels are in addition to the four contracted at Qingdao Beihai back in March this year. These latest orders will see MOL closing the gap with Eastern Pacific Shipping, who have been the biggest contractor of these vessels to date this year with in excess of 10 vessels added to their orderbook this year. In terms of tankers, the focus was on product carriers, with reports of 2 LR1 and 2 LR2 vessels contracted last week. The increased appeal of product tankers this year versus 2022 has been particularly apparent in the LR1 sector, with almost 20 orders this year in comparison with no contracting last year”.
In a similar note, Clarkson Platou Hellas said that “tankers this week, clients of Performance shipping announced contracting two firm 115k dwt LR2s at SWS, with the vessels set for delivery in January and April 2026. In dry bulk, MOL announced contracting three firm LNG dual fuel 210k dwt Newcastlemaxes at Qingdao Beihai, with the vessels set to deliver in 2027. MOL also announced ordering two firm LNG dual fuel 209k dwt Newcastlemaxes at Nihon Shipyard (NSY), with the vessels slated for delivery in 2026. Finally, in MPPs, Seacon Shipping announced orders for four firm 62k DWT, 660 TEU MPP’s at Huanghai, with the vessels set to deliver within 2H 2025”, the shipbroker said. Meanwhile, in the S&P market, Allied commented that “on the dry bulk side, the snp market slowed down considerably week-on-week, given the limited number of transactions being reported. Thinking about the typical lull during this time of the year, this can hardly be considered as an indication of a sluggish market in the near term. In the separate size segments, only Supramax one has retained a positive momentum given page 1 4- week trend analysis. All-in-all, being at the closing of the year, buying interest may prevail somehow more moderate, without that necessarily being translated into fewer deals coming to light. On the tanker side, it was somewhat expected not to see any “random” gear up in volume of sales, especially around this typically quite period of the year. Notwithstanding this, some fresh deals from the Aframax and Panamax size segments appeared as of late, while MR market remained in a state of clampdown”, Allied said. Finally, the shipbroker said that “the recycling market remains quiet, as has been the case over the past few weeks, with just a couple of sales to report this week. Though they failed to deliver the volumes that some may have hoped for, container sales have contributed steadily over the year and have continued to do so in the form of the 1997 built, 650 TEU ‘Sol Valour’. To date this year, there have been 84 container vessel sales, which is just 10 short of the number of dry bulk sales and almost double the number of tanker demolition sales. The current rerouting of vessels in order to avoid the Red Sea has the potential to lift the freight market across sectors, which could keep vessels trading longer. Prices have continued to soften and are now sat roughly in the line where they were a year ago, and the highs seen in summer feel very distant. That being said, steps are being taken to support the economies of Bangladesh and Pakistan, which will hopefully allow breakers to engage more actively with the market in 2024, in the form of a request for support from the World Bank by Bangladesh and World Bank authorization of finance for Pakistan”, Allied concluded.
Source: Hellenic Shipping News
