Hamburg’s Hammonia Reederei has joined the rush to scrap exceptionally young boxships. Brokers tell Splash the German company sent the 13-year-old 3,100 teu Westphalia to Bangladesh for scrap, notching a weak price of $240 per ldt.
to Bangladesh for scrap, notching a weak price of $240 per ldt.Canada’s Seaspan has been leading the charge to offload similarly aged tonnage amid the very depressed freight rates scene for panamax sized ships, with four 13-year-old boxships scrapped by the Gerry Wang-led company so far this year.
With the opening of the expanded new Panama Canal panamax rates have plummeted and panamax boxships have been scrapped in very high numbers this year.
A report by BIMCO at the end of June highlighted how the panamax segment had seen 150,863 teu of scrapping in the first six months, the same volume as in the previous 18 months through to end December 2015.
Time charter rates for the panamax segment went down from the monthly average of $15,800 per day in March 2015 to a monthly average of $5,755 per day in July 2016, a drop of 63.5%.
“The expansion of the Panama Canal backs up the shift away from the segment of panamax ships which have a maximum beam of 32 metres, putting them in line for demolition,” BIMCO chief analyst Peter Sand noted in the report.
Hammonia Reederei has been shrinking its fleet this year. At the beginning of July Borealis Maritime came in for the 3,400 teu Korean-built Hammonia Jutlandia boxship, paying Hammonia Reederei $5.3m for the 10-year-old vessel.
Hammonia Reederei is a joint venture between three partners: Peter Döhle, HCI and Ardian, the latter of whom – previously known as AXA Private Equity – purchased GE Capital’s shares in the line in March this year.
Hammonia Reederei fleet today stands at around 50 boxships ranging in size from 868 teu to 10,000 teu plus two bulk carriers and 10 MPPs.
