Shipping might have been enjoying its best year since the collapse of Lehman Brothers, yet loan volumes have fallen off a cliff in 2021.
The ClarkSea Index – a weighted barometer developed by Clarksons covering the main shipping sectors – stands at $36,535 a day, with the average in the year to date up 90% year-on-year and 108% on the 10-year trend.
However, these buoyant numbers have not been reciprocated by lenders who have turned off the taps during the pandemic.
Dealogic’s recently published nine-month Marine Finance Rankings highlight a clear dip in loan volumes, something ship finance title Marine Money has described as “shocking” in terms of magnitude.
The approximate $19bn in shipping loans recorded in the first nine months of the year is the lowest amount recorded by Marine Money since it began tracking this data in 2005. The $19bn figure is down by 46.4% compared to the same period last year and down by 57% compared to the average marine finance volume recorded since 2005.
