Newbuilding orders keep on piling up
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- Category: General
- Published on Wednesday, 22 January 2014 04:03
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Wednesday, 22 January 2014 | 00:00
Ship owners are set to further expand the global orderbook, if the first few weeks of the New Year are anything to go by. So far, newbuilding ordering activity is on the rise, compared to the respective period of last year, which was already a rather active one, in fact the busiest year since the dawn of the global financial crisis back in 2008-2009. According to the latest weekly report from shipbroker Golden Destiny, newbuilding activity was up 59% on the week and 338% on the year, compared to the same week of last year. In total, ship owners placed orders for 57 vessels with an aggregate deadweight tonnage of 4,772,400 tons, while 35 transactions were reported at an undisclosed price. The invested capital for the remaining 22 orders reached $1.13 billion. In total, orders were placed for 25 bulkers, 14 tankers, 4 gas tankers, 4 containers, 1 passenger/cruise, 2 car carriers and 7 special projects.
"The largest volume of newbuilding activity is reported in bulk carrier with focus in the ultramax segment and in the tanker with focus on crude carrier vessel categories. Orders for bulk carriers held 44% share of this week’s ordering activity; tankers 25% share, gas tankers 7% share, containers 7% share, and special projects 12% share. At similar week in 2013, 13 fresh orders had been reported with the largest activity in the tanker segment -6 reported new contracts. (2 bulkers, 6 tankers, 1 gas tanker and 4 special projects). Compared with previous week’s levels, a large decrease of 58% is recorded in the volume of new orders for bulkers (25 new orders from 59 in the last week), 22% weekly decrease in the tanker (14 new orders from 18 in the last week) and 86% weekly decrease in the container (4 new orders from 29 last week)", Golden Destiny noted.
Meanwhile, in a separate report from shipbroker Clarkson Hellas, "starting with dry, it has been a relatively active week in the newbuilding market with orders being reported across all major sectors. Qingdao Yangfan announced an order for four firm plus two option 206,000 DWT Newcastlemax from Trafigura Beheer. Pricing was not disclosed, however delivery of the firm vessels is due from the third quarter of 2015 and options in the second half of 2016 if declared. Klaveness have declared the 5th and 6th in a series of 82,000 DWT Kamsarmax at Jiangsu New Yangzijiang, both for delivery in 2016. It also emerged that Klaveness have ordered two firm 80,500 DWT combination carriers at Zhejiang Ouhua, for delivery in mid-2016. At Zhejiang Yangfan, d’Amico have declared options for two further 64,000 DWT Ultramax. Both are due to deliver in 2016 and takes the series to a total of six vessels. Two separate orders to report for Lauritzen Bulkers, with two 61,000 DWT Ultramax at DACKS and two 63,000 DWT Ultramax at Imabari. Pricing remains undisclosed, however delivery is planned for 2016 and 2017 at each yard respectively. Finally it was reported that Pioneer Marine contracted two firm 38,000 DWT Handysize at Taizhou Sanfu, with both due to deliver in 2016", Clarkson Hellas reported.
It added that "in wet, clients of Lyras Maritime have placed an ordered for two firm plus one option 115,000 DWT coated LR2 at Sungdong, with delivery in 2016. At New Times, Larine Tankers (part of Odfjell) have contracted two firm 74,000 DWT LR1 product tankers, with delivery in July and October 2016. Trafigura are also understood to have declared options for four further 50,000 DWT MRs at GSI. This takes the total series to eight vessels with delivery of the latest four due in 2016. A relatively quiet week in containers, with just one order to report. Shoei Kisen have placed an order for five 14,000 TEU container carriers at Koyu Dock. Understood to be for charter to Evergreen, these vessels will be delivered between 2016 and 2017", Clarkson Hellas concluded.
Nikos Roussanoglou, Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide