Bulk Carrier

A total of 204 bulk carriers have been sold since the beginning of 2019, interestingly however only 6 of these have been Capesize Bulkers.

During a period of 4 months from December 2018 to April 2019, no Capesize sales were concluded. This break of 106 days had never been seen in the market before.

The lack of activity can be attributed to a lull in buying confidence brought on by poor spot rates and the collapse of the Vale owned Brumadinho dam in Brazil and its consequent effect on cargo supply.

The record came to an end when the well-known owner, Fred Cheng, sold 2 x 2002 BLT units the Shinyo Challenger and ShinyoEndeavour in quick succession both to Chinese buyers.

Tanker

By contrast, tankers have had a quieter in 2019 with only 141 sold since the beginning of the year.

The lackluster activity has been in part due to poor market sentiment and earnings but also from changing global regulations and an increase in sanctioning activity coming from the US.

Modern assets have performed the best with resale prices for VLCC in particular reaching a recent 5 year peak at USD$98million. This is partly due to rising new ship-building costs but also afunction of owners looking to reposition themselves with modern high specificationassets in time for IMO 2020.  

Recent VLCC time charter fixtures suggestthat charterers are currently willing to offer premiums for scrubber fittedvessels. A prime example of this being a 2018 scrubber fitted VLCC “The Maria PLemos” being fixed to Mercuria for 3 years at USD$43,000 per day, a rate that has not been seen in over 4 years.

Offshore

The offshore market has experienced a healthy level of sale and purchase activity. With a number of supply and construction boat sales being concluded as a result of the well-publicized TOISA bankruptcy in 2018.

Besides,we have also seen improving fundamentals especially in the North Sea and as a result further modern / resale assets being concluded albeit still at historically low figures.

PSV’s have proven the most popular choice with 33 vessels sold since the beginning of 2019.