An outlook for new order contracts for 2013 is still uncertain, however, it could be good news to newbuilding market in the medium to longer term that the fleet supply and demand is getting closer to equation due to a slow growth of tonnage.
Global newbuilding contracts last year totaled 1,120 vessels of a combined 45.5mDWT hitting the lowest record over the last 10 years since 2002 when amounts of slightly over 50mDWT were contracted, according to Clarkson Research Services.
The last year’s number represents less than 57.5mDWT of 2009 when there was a severe lack of orders affected by global economic crisis and even it was much lower than 2010’s 155.4mDWT and 82.9mDWT of 2011.  
Vessel types of which newbuildings were contracted last year were mainly those in niche markets, such as offshore, gas carriers and passenger ships.
Meanwhile, newbuilding delivery in 2012 recorded 2,474 vessels of a combined 152.9mDWT, a 6.6% drop against the previous year, however it was the second largest amount ever.
It is the first time for global newbuilding delivery to have marked a downturn since 1998, while newbuildings of 163.7mDWT and 151.4mDWT were conducted in 2011 and 2010, respectively.
Newbuilding orders contracted last year showed a 45.1% drop against 2011 and newbuildings delivered were close to the largest level that orderbook decreased by 34.2% annually. Since January 1, 2013, global newbuilding orderbook is said to be 260mDWT, representing the lowest level since earlier 2006.
On the other hand, a total of 1,247 vessels of a combined 56.3mDWT were scrapped in 2012, showing the largest tonnage ever and outpacing contracting activities for the first time in industry.
As of the beginning of 2012, the volume of tonnage equivalent to 3.7% of fleet was sold for demolition that the age of vessels for scrap has shown a gradual decline and recorded 27.7 years in 2012 by an annual average.  
Particularly, amid active demolition, global increase in net tonnage was a combined of 96.7mDWT, showing a 6.0% rise in tonnage, and the increase rate, which had a peak at 9.5% in 2010, was seen to decline greatly last year, following 2011’s 8.7%.
A high level of demolition activity is expected to continue in 2013 as last year and 62.6% of newbuilding orderbook is scheduled for delivery within this year that newbuilding amounts are seen to remain its high level relatively till this year, according to Clarkson.