Despite the demise of the dry bulk market and the collapse of freight rates since the beginning of 2012, on the back of record breaking newbuilding deliveries, ship owners are still keen on investing on second hand bulkers, should the proper opportunity arise. They are betting that, if the price is right, they can break even as soon as the dry bulk market posts a small rebound from today's near record low levels. This means that once the current oversupply of tonnage is alleviated, they can earn a hefty profit on these cheaply acquired vessels.

According to the latest report from Clarkson Hellas on the Sales and Purchase front, it was another week of hightened activity in the dry cargo sector, "with more reported activity across all sectors. Clients of Sinokor have dominated the capesize market this week with the reported purchases of 2 x VLOCs namely the M/V WARRIOR (243,850 dwt 1990 blt I.H.I.) at US$ 12m and the M/V GENERAL (238,818 dwt 1992 blt Hitachi Zosen) from Chinese owners HOSCO for US$ 12.5m, and the M/V RUBIN HOPE (170,409 dwt 1999 blt I.H.I) from clients of Mitsui O.S.K. for region US$ 15m. The “WARRIOR” and “GENERAL” were both acquired by the owners as VLCCs in 2007 and converted in January 2008 to ore carriers.

The handymax M/V NEW EMERALD (45,554 dwt 1996 blt Samsung) is concluded at around US$ 7.5m to Greek buyers while the older M/V KS GRACE (41,090 dwt 1985 blt Oshima) is reportedly sold to Chinese buyers for US$ 3.1m.

In the handies Chinese buyers have agreed to pay US$ 6.5m for M/V NEW ALLIANCE (27,904 dwt 1996 blt Hakodate) while the M/V KOPER (22,150 dwt 1993 blt Saiki) reported sold at US$ 4.5m to Far Eastern buyers.

In the Tanker S+P market we can report the sale M/T HELLESPONT TROOPER (147,916 dwt 1996 blt Samsung) which understand acquired by Greek buyers at a price in the region of US$ 12m. The M/T RAINBOW QUEST (47,221 dwt 1999 blt Onomichi) to Mercator at close to US$ 11.5m" Clarkson Hellas said.

Meanwhile, in another critical segment for the future of the dry bulk market, the demolition of older vessels, this time around, owners are refraining from selling more of their older vessels at the moment, as a result of a considerable price reduction in rates they can receive from scrapyards around the world and mainlyAsia, where the vast majority of vessels are being scrapped. According to shipbroker Intermodal, "it seems as though owners decided to delay any decision to proceed with pushing their overage tonnage for demolition. This was also fairly prevalent by the slower activity noted in the market the past week. Things are unlikely to change for the better fairly quick, as the difficulties noted by Bangladeshi breakers with regards to getting lines of credit open and at the same time the slower interest from both India and Pakistan will likely keep things subdued for a while. China on the other had seemed to have had a change in appetite, increasing its offered price levels and essentially closing the large gap between them and the Indian sub-continent that had been created since the end of July. Prices as such held fairly stable this week, with wet tonnage receiving around 320-400$/ldt and dry units still holding at about 290-375$/ldt".

In a separate note on demolition activity, Athenian Shipbrokers said that "once more the timing of making a vessel available for demolition proves to be of the essence as the weakening of recycling market interest seems to hit owners seeking to promptly off-load older tonnage. India leads the way with mild interest shown on promptly available vessels, while Pakistani breakers seem to – traditionally – strongly favour tanker vessels. With the Bangladeshi market currently closed as it tries to ‘digest’ tonnage already in their hands and China showing little signs of recovery, it is inevitable that the stream of vessels heading towards the Sub – Continent will continue to flow unabated" the shipbroker concluded.
Source: Nikos Roussanoglou, Hellenic Shipping News