Vultures are closely watching the S&P bulk market as it is oversupplied with vintage candidates and softening dry cargo rates. While capes and kamasarmaxes have had to adjust their asking prices, sellers of smaller tonnage sizes are still achieving record high numbers with supramax and handysize tonnage still climbing.
There have been a few interesting comparisons of late between Chinese and Japanese-built tonnage.
One broker report uses the below comparisons for two ten-year-old Japanese-built ships. The 56,000 dwt- Mitsui built supra Xin Xiang Hai was sold for $23m in May, while the 58,000 dwt Kawasaki-built Neutrino was sold for one million more this month.
Another two 10-year-old supramaxes are reported sold. This month Costamare is widely reported selling the 10-year-old Taizhou Khouan-built vessel, the 57,000 dwt Merida, for just under $20m, while last month, the same-sized Jiangdong Shipbuilding-built Bao Progress was reported sold for some $17.6m, clearly highlighting the constant price premium Japanese tonnage achieves.
