Singapore: OSVs have been one of the few consistently bright spots for a number of niche Chinese shipbuilders who have sewn up around 75% of the sector in recent years. These Chinese yards can expect plenty more orders in the coming years.
Despite the slew of OSVs already on order there’s a very bright future for earnings in this sector, says one of the leading brokers in this field. Mike Meade, boss of brokers M3 Marine, told SinoShip News that the outlook for the sector through to 2017 is “positive growth”. In Asia Pacific alone the demand increase through to 2017 will necessitate the need for another 200 OSVs.
“In our business ships are cheaper than they have been for more than five years. You can order ships at breakeven prices for the yards,” Meade said.
For OSVs when utilization rates hit 80% freight rates normally increase, and Meade reports that utilization is already “north of 80%”. [21/09/12]
