As we approach the final couple of weeks of 2018 and activity is bound to slow down in the shipping markets, ship owners seem to be zeroing in, on LNG newbuildings and dry bulk carriers from the second hand market. In its latest weekly report, in terms of newbuildings, Allied Shipbroking said that “things weren’t all that interesting this past week. New orders continued to be limited, following the same regressive pattern that we saw emerging over prior weeks. Despite the freight market recovery noted in the dry bulk sector, it hasn’t helped the newbuilding market to sustain a more stable track, with the market most probably finishing the year short of expectations for the final quarter (if the market had performed as previously thought). On the tanker front, things remained rather unchanged on w-o-w basis, with activity being subdued, and leaving the Gas sector to step up and push things further for the overall market. To sum up, given that we are now but a breath away from the year end and given that current market trends aren’t suggesting any major shift for now, we may well expect a further slowdown in activity to take hold during the remainder of the month”.

In a separate newbuilding report, Clarkson Platou Hellas added that “the focus of ordering this week has been on the LNG market. DSME announced contracts for two firm plus up to four option 174,000cbm LNG carriers from BW Gas. Delivery of the firm vessels is due within 1H 2021. NYK announced orders at Samsung for two firm 174k CBM vessels similarly for delivery in 2021. In the smaller sizes, Hyundai Mipo signed contracts for one firm plus one option 30,000cbm LNG carriers with Knutsen for delivery at the beginning of 2021. In tankers, Hyundai Heavy secured an order for four firm 158,000dwt Suezmax from Ciner Denizcilik for delivery from 2H 2020. In the smaller sizes, AVIC Dingheng added further to their orderbook with Ningbo Marine ordering a single 10,000dwt product tanker for delivery in mid-2020”.

Meanwhile, in the S&P Market, Allied said that “on the dry bulk side, a rather modest number of transactions took place these past couple of days, a mere reflection of the fact that the market is yet to instill confidence in buyers. Notwithstanding this, we can’t but notice the gear up in volume of Capesize vessels changing hands the past couple of days, despite the fact it was this specific market was the one showing the greatest instability and hurt most from the recent free fall in the dry bulk freight market. On the tanker side, another week of increased activity, with buying appetite in the market seemingly abundant for the time being. For a second consecutive week, we are witnessing a gear up in transactions in the MR sector, underlying once again the strong interest for product tankers. Moreover, given that there are signs of optimism, in respect to the future earnings outlook, we may well witness many other interesting deals take place before the end of the year”.

In a separate report, VesselsValue added that in the tanker market, “values have remained stable. Aframax Singapore River (115,100 DWT, Mar 2009, Sasebo) sold to Roswell Tankers Corp for USD 23.25 mil, VV value USD 21.98 mil. Aframaxes Gulf Vision and Gulf Valour (114,900 DWT, Oct 2012 & Jan 2013, Samsung) sold to Greek buyers in an en bloc deal for a total of USD 64.0 mil, VV value en bloc USD 64.29 mil. MR2 Unique Developer (47,400 DWT, May 2010, Onomichi Dockyard) sold to Celsius Shipping for USD 17.0 mil, VV value USD 16.6 mil. MR2 Ardmore Seatrader (47,100 DWT, Dec 2002, Onomichi Dockyard) sold to Sanmar Shipping for USD 8.2 mil, VV value USD 7.28 million”, the ships valuations’ expert said. Similarly, in the bulker market there was “slight Softening in mid age Capesizes. Capesize Frontier Coronet (182,700 DWT, Jan 2011, Kawasaki) sold to Unisea Shipping for USD 29.0 mil, VV value USD 30.42 mil. Capesizes Shagang Hongchang and Shagang Hongfa (179,500 DWT, Sep 2011, Hyundai Heavy Ind) sold in an en bloc deal to Chinese buyers for USD 66.0 mil, VV value en bloc USD 63.38 mil. Inc BBB. Supramax Veronique D (58,700 DWT, Jan 2012, Nantong COSCO KHI) sold for USD 16.0 mil, VV value USD 15.88 million”, VV concluded.

Nikos Roussanoglou, Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide