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Weekly Broker: Smaller ships dominate sales action

The sale and purchase activity is picking up this week for both tankers and bulkers with buyers showing particular interest for smaller sized vessels.

While the chartering market for larger size vessel segments continues to be volatile, market fundamentals for smaller ships have rebalanced and are firming up.

According to Fearnleys weekly report, despite the overall disappointing returns and poor freight levels, there has been a positive trend this week in the capesize chartering market with the index gradually up every day, while rates for panamaxes are down in both hemispheres after a couple of strong weeks however a recovery is anticipated next week as a larger quantity of cargoes have been entering the market in the last couple of days.

Additionally, the supramax market was flat and unexciting across all basins.

“Most look at the reversal in the capesize market as a development due given that rates for the big bulkers had bottomed out and while there is evidence that healthier activity has also assisted in last week’s positive reversal, skepticism will keep reigning over the dry bulk market until cape earnings reach and sustain truly healthy levels. Either or, we do expect this week to be more positive across the board, while in the little activity that has been reported on the period front last week, rates continue to reflect significant premiums over spot levels,” Intermodal said in its report.

“On the dry bulk side, the level of activity continued to rise once 
more after the brief pause experienced during previous weeks. Up to now, buying interest has mainly focused on smaller sizes, such supramax and handysize, moving in line too with what was seen in the newbuilding market as well. This trend in buying preference for the smaller size tonnage is likely to extend into the second quarter of the year as well,” Allied Shipbroking said in its weekly report.

More than eight shipbroking houses reported the sale of the 2004-built 76,800 dwt panamax bulker Ascanius. The vessel was sold by Monaco-based Transocean Maritime to Greek owner Newport for $8.7m.

Advanced Shipping & Trading, Allied Shipbroking, Intermodal and Lorentzen & Stemoco all listed the sale of the 2005-built 32,000 dwt handysize bulker IVS Kawana. Danish owner Janchart Shipping acquired the Japanese-built vessel from Island View Shipping, a Singapore unit of Grindrod Shipping for a price of $7.8m.

Advanced Shipping & Trading, Allied Shipbroking, and Lorentzen & Stemoco all reported a deal in which Ukrainian owner NVL Trans took over the 1996-built 45,000 dwt handymax bulker Anton Topic from Marfin Management for an undisclosed price.

“On the tanker side, the market has held more stable lately, with activity remaining at firm levels for yet another week. This past week, deals were limited to the VLCC and products segments. The positive outlook for both the crude and products markets has helped push interest for some of the more attractive candidates circulating the market and gearing up expectations for further positive developments to be seen in snp activity over the coming weeks,” Allied Shipbroking said.

Multiple shipbroking houses including Allied Shipbroking, Banchero Costa, Lorentzen & Stemoco and Andreas J. Zachariassen all reported the sale of the 2004-built 318,600 dwt VLCC tanker S Glory. The South Korean-built vessel was sold by Sinokor to Greek owner Smart Tankers for a firm price of $30.5m.

Both Clarkson and Allied Shipbroking reported a deal in which the 2006 Chinese-built 300,000dwt VLCC Nerissa was finally sold by Indian owner Mercator to Greek owner NGM Energy for a price of $31m.

Banchero Costa and Lorentzen & Stemoco both reported an en bloc sale of two 2018-built 115,600 dwt aframax tankers, Sea Pecos and Sea Tanana. Nazli Karamehmet Williams-controlled Advantage Tankers is said to have acquired the two ships from Seatankers for $48.9m each.

Allied Shipbroking and Intermodal listed the sale of the 2018-built 16,300 dwt product tanker Fure Vinga. The Chinese-built vessel was sold by Swedish owner Furetank Rederi to Canada’s Algoma Tankers for an undisclosed price.

In the containership sale and purchase market, Andreas J. Zachariassen reported that German owner Martime Gesellschaft, part of Schoeller Holdings, sold two 2008-built 3,426 teu containerships, Primavera and Quadriga, to German interests for about $8.5m each. Following the sale, Martime Gesellschaft’s fleet will be left with one sub-panamax boxship.

Jason Jiang

Jason is one of the most prolific writers on the diverse China shipping & logistics industry and his access to the major maritime players with business in China has proved an invaluable source of exclusives. Having been working at Asia Shipping Media since inception, Jason is the chief correspondent of Splash and associate editor of Maritime CEO magazine. Previously he had written for a host of titles including Supply Chain Asia, Cargo Facts and Air Cargo Week.
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