With the month of August upon us and the inevitable summer lull ahead, ship owners were actively looking to seal off newbuilding deals that they have negotiating for some time now. As a result, activity has been rather brisk. According to the latest weekly report from shipbroker Golden Destiny, during the course of the past week, orders for 57 vessels were reported, amounting to an aggregate deadweight of 3,072,700 tons. Additionally, 24 transactions were reported at an undisclosed contract price. According to the Piraeus-based shipbroker, the invested capital was estimated at about $1.85 billion for 33 new vessels. Out of these, 28 were for bulkers, 4 were for liners and 9 were for containers.
In total, newbuilding activity was down 20% on a weekly basis, but 138% up on a yearly basis. According to the shipbroker's report, "the largest volume of newbuilding activity is reported in the bulk carrier and passenger/cruise segment with 28 and 10 new orders respectively. The lower newbuilding activity of this week is mainly attributed to zero reported orders for tankers and weaker volume of contract for offshore vessels, while containers
again grasped a significant share of the total newbuilding activity. Bulk carriers held 49% share of this week’s volume of new orders, containers 16% share, passenger/cruise 18% share and special projects 11% share", it noted.
The report added that "at a similar week in 2012, 24 fresh orders had been reported with the largest volume of newbuilding activity in bulk carrier and special project segment – 7 and 9 new orders respectively. Compared with previous week’s levels, a large increase of 233% in the volume of new orders is recorded in the passenger/cruise segment (10 new orders for river cruise vessels from Viking River Cruises of Switzerland), in the container segment- 50% increase (9 new orders from 6 last week). In the bulk carrier segment, there was a 12% increase in the volume of new orders with fierce investors’ appetite for ultramax vessels. In the tanker and gas tanker segments, zero activity is reported this week from 5 new orders each reported in the previous week. In terms of invested capital, a hefty amount of money is invested in the bulk carrier segment, 32% share of the total invested capital due to the large volume of new orders reported for ulramax vessels and ongoing interest in the capesize segment, more than $596 million for 28 new orders. A large volume of capital is also invested in the container segment – 29% share, $529mil for 9 new orders, 5 new orders in the post panamax segment for boxship vessels of 8,800 TEU at a newbuilding cost of $85mil each.
Chinese yards won significant volume of business this week, 65% share of the total volume of orders reported this week is placed at Chinese yards with South Korea winning only one contract for the construction of a high valued drillship of about $591 million and Japan only 2 new orders for bulkers –kamsarmax size", Golden Destiny concluded.
In a separate report, shipbroker Clarkson Hellas noted that "despite the on‐going summer holidays, it has been a relatively active week in the newbuilding market with a notable number of new orders having been reported. In particular this week we have seen further ordering in the mid‐sized dry sector and very much focussed on Ultramax. Starting with the larger sizes, Great Eastern Shipping of India were reported to have placed an order for two firm 81,600 DWT Kamsarmax at Tsuneishi Cebu. Pricing for these orders remains undisclosed however we understand delivery of both vessels is due in the first half of 2016. Similarly K.G. Jebsen are understood to have declared the 4th and 5th options in a series of 81,000 DWT Kamsarmax at JMU. Pricing is understood to be in the region USD 30 Mill with delivery of both vessels in 2015", it noted.
Clarkson Hellas added that "this week has also seen Scorpio Bulkers place orders for a total of eleven firm Ultramax plus three options. Contracts were signed for four firm 61,000 DWT Ultramax at both Nantong COSCO KHI (NACKS) and Dalian COSCO KHI (DACKS). Delivery of all the vessels is due within 2015 with pricing understood to be in the region USD 27 Mill. Scorpio reported a further order for three firm plus three option 63,000 DWT Ultramax at Chengxi, with the firm vessels for delivery at the end of 2015 and early 2016. Also at Chengxi, Dalnave Navigation Inc are understood to have placed an order for two firm 64,000 DWT Ultramax with delivery in the first half of 2016. It was also reported this week that Peter Dohle have placed an order for two firm plus two option 64,000 DWT Ultramax at Yangzijiang.
Pricing is in the region USD 25.5 Mill with delivery planned from the end of 2015. Finally in dry, believed to have been signed earlier this month, Kouan has received an order for two firm 39,000 DWT Handysize from a domestic Chinese buyer, both for delivery in the first half of 2015. There are no orders to report in the tanker market, however there have been a number of new containership orders coming to light this week. In the larger sizes, in addition to the buyer’s order at Dalian reported earlier this month, CIMC are understood to have placed signed for a further five firm 8,800 TEU container carriers at New Times. Due for charter to MSC when delivered in 2015, pricing is understood to be in the region USD 85 Mill. It was also reported that Hyundai Mipo have taken an order for a single 1,900 TEU container vessel from CK Line, due for delivery at the end of 2014. Finally COSCO Shipping have placed an order for four firm 36,000 DWT MPPs at NACKS. The vessels are understood to have a container capacity of around 2,000 TEU and be equipped with 4 x 100T deck cranes. Pricing is in the region USD 33.7 Mill with delivery is to be split between 2015 and 2016", the shipbroker concluded.