Despite the fact that newbuilding ordering activity has seen further falls during the first few weeks of the new year, compared to the equivalent period of 2012, by no means has there been a lull in contracting business. Ship owners are still rather active in the market, as they look to secure newbuildings at attractive pricing, on the back of renewed optimism regardin d a rebound in the dry bulk market, especially from 2014 onwards, as demand is poised to swell to new heights.
According to the latest report from Clarkson Hellas, "the past week has seen yet further reports of new business being concluded and similarly to last week’s capesize orders, the majority of these have again been within the dry bulk market. This time though, the ordering has been concentrated amongst the midsized vessels and has been focused primarily amongst the Japanese yards. With the financial year in Japan continuing to run up until the end of March, we do expect to continue to see news of further orders being placed as the yards there look to boost their end of year results" said the shipbroker.
It added that "amongst the orders this week, Tsuneishi are understood to have extended their relationship with J.J. Ugland and have signed a contract with Clients of UM Bulk AS for two 58,000 DWT bulkers. UM Bulk is a J/V between the J.J. Ugland companies, Grimstad and Mitsubishi Corporation, Tokyo and these vessels will be built at Tsuneishi’s Cebu facility in the Philippines. The pricing of these vessels is understood to stand in the region of USD 26.5 Mill and deliveries are provisionally scheduled within the 4Q of 2014 and 1Q 2015. Clients of Singaporean based Pacific Carriers are reported to have ordered a single 61,000 DWT bulk carrier at Imabari, with a reported price of USD 28 Mill and delivery in 1Q 2015. In other dry business, Sanoyas are understood to have won their first order of the year, for one 82,000 DWT Kamsarmax, from an undisclosed buyer with delivery End 2014. Finally, Clients of Dharma Bangsa Mentari have reportedly contracted up to 10 x 10,500 DWT bulk carriers with self‐unloading capability at Qidong Daoda, China with delivery from 1H 2014" Clarkson Hellas said.
Meanwhile, in a separate report, shipbroker Golden Destiny noted that "in the newbuilding market, the last week of January ended with very soft newbuilding activity in the tanker/gas tanker segments and no reported activity in the container. In the bulk carrier segment, the large volume of orders placed for 10 handy self discharging bulkers of about 10,000dwt pushed the contracting activity for bulk carriers to 400% higher levels than the previous week. Following last week’s excessive volume of new orders, 25 in the bulk carrier, tanker, gas tanker and container segments, offshore vessels and bulk carriers grasped the lion share of this week’s total volume of new order, 54% by offshore and 37% by bulk carriers" the Piraeus-based shipbroker said.
It noted that "in the bulk carrier segment, new orders reported were in the small vessel sizes categories from handy to ultramax vessels and in the tanker segment, there were no orders reported for MR vessel types, which used to concentrate a large volume of new orders. Overall, the week closed with 35 fresh orders reported worldwide at a total deadweight of 756,642 tons, posting a 19 % week-on-week decline from previous week with a 800% and 400% weekly increase in the offshore and bulk carrier segment respectively. In the tanker, gas tanker and container segments, there has been a 400%, 300% and 600% respectively weekly fall in the volume of new orders. This week’s total newbuilding business is up by 250% from similar week’s closing in 2012, when 10 fresh orders had been reported, 2 for bulkers and 8 for special projects. In terms of invested capital, the total amount of money invested is estimated in the region of more than $3,5bn, 30 newbuidling deals reported at an undisclosed contract price, with a hefty amount invested in the offshore segment through a $3,3bn newbuilding order for the construction of a FPSO at Samsung of South Korea for Total
Energy of France.
-- Source from Nikos Roussanoglou, Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide