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Weekly Broker: Sales candidates proliferate

The sale and purchase market has experienced a good week for concluded volumes in both the bulker and tanker sectors. A busy Middle East VLCC market together with stabilised larger bulker segments have all boosted investor confidence after a rough start to the year.

On the dry bulk charter market, according to Alibra’s latest weekly report, activity in the Pacific has stablised the capesize market this week following last week’s volatility, and the panamax market has also been stable with healthy demand in both basins while activities for smaller vessels in the period market was reported as limited.

Allied Shipbroking’s indicative dry bulk values show that handysize bulkers have been the only segment that experienced a price drop in the bulker sale and purchase market in the past month while prices for other bulker segments remain stable. The average price for 15-year-old 28,000 dwt bulkers dropped by 10.3% since April 5, and the average price for 10-year-old 32,000 dwt bulkers is also down 2.1% in the same period.

“On the dry bulk side, another interesting week in terms of concluded volume. For the time being, we are witnessing a rather refreshed market, in sharp contrast to the extended sluggish mode that we had witnessed during the previous months. Whether this reflects a rather strong buying appetite, that will continue to nourish the market, or if its part of plethora of sales candidates circulating the market, remains to be seen. For now, buying interest seems to be firm, while it has evenly shared between different segments and age groups,” Allied Shipbroking said.

Allied Shipbroking, Lorentzen & Stemoco and Intermodal all listed a deal in which Greek owner Goulandris Bros sold its 2001 Japanese-built 74,100 dwt panamax bulker Rodon Amarandon to Chinese interests. The vessel has fetched a price of $6.6m.

According to reports by Advanced Shipping & Trading, Lion Shipbroking and Lorentzen & Stemoco, Slovenian owner Splosna Plovba has sold its 2010 Chinese-built supramax bulker Trenta to Chinese interests for around $10m, a week after the the company had sold its sister ship, Tamar, to Chinese buyers.

More than five shipbroking houses reported the sale of the 2007-built 37,000 dwt handysize bulker, Cielo Di Amalfi. Japanese owner Tokei Kaiun sold the vessel to Vietnamese interests for a price of $10.2m.

Multiple shipbroking sources reported that German owner Hamburger Lloyd has committed its 2011 Chinese-built 32,000 dwt handysize RHL Novare to Greek buyers for $8m, while Banchero Costa identified the buyer as Cosmoship, who has been linked to several handysize transactions over the last few weeks.

According to Fearnlys weekly report, it has been a very active week for VLCCs while the suezmax market showed some limited signs of life over the past week, and aframax rates in the North Sea and Baltic also experiencing an increase.

“On the tanker side, a very active week took place, continuing on from the rather upward boost noted during the previous couple of weeks. The main point here is that we finally saw interest shifting towards the larger crude oil carriers, building up at the same time a better overall sentiment for the near term. Notwithstanding this, things still seem to be in a stay of shift and could easily turn around,” Allied Shipbroking said of the S&P scene.

Allied Shipbroking and Intermodal reported the sale of the 2002-built 20,600 dwt chemical tanker Valdaosta. The ship has been sold by Italian owner Montanari Navigazione to Nigerian interests for around $7.2m.

Lorentzen & Stemoco, Banchero Costa and Optima all reported that Hong Kong’s Valles Steamship fleet clearcut continues with the sale of its 2005-built, 109,000 dwt aframax tanker Seaheritage. The Chinese-built vessel is believed to have been acquired by Union Maritime for $14m.

Advanced Shipping & Trading, Allied Shipbroking, Intermodal and Lorentzen & Stemoco listed the sale of the 2005-built 70,000 dwt LR tanker Super Sky. The Japanese-built vessel has been sold by Smart Creature to Greek interests for an undisclosed price.

According to Braemar ACM Shipbroking, the secondhand containership market has taken time to return to life after the holidays.

The 2003-built 2,496 teu boxship Puccini was rumoured to be sold by Norway’s Borealis Finance at $7.1m to Middle East-based buyers. Additionally, as reported by Splash earlier this week Technomar has reportedly picked up two 2004-built 7,500 teu ships ER Santa Barbara and ER Montecito from Zeaborn in a deal that combined a charter back deal for four years. Splash reported the deal earlier this week and the buyer is believed to be Greek owner Technomar Shipping.

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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