ContainersDry CargoOperationsTankers

Weekly Broker: Bulkers lead the pack

The dry bulk sale and purchase market has seen a pick-up in activities in line with the soaring Baltic Dry Index, now firmly back in four-digit territory for the first time this year.

According to Alibra Shipping’s latest report, the capesize market has surged ahead this week both in the spot and period markets spurred by increased demand from China and gradual reopening of other economies. The panamax/kamsarmax market has also moved up with renewed interest in the period market. In the meantime, sentiment is improving for the smaller sizes although very little has been reported by way of period fixtures.

“On the dry bulk side, a modest flow of transactions took place for yet another week, with the whole SnP market seemingly being on recovery mode. As for the past week, the main focus remained once again for the more vintage unit, while the activity concentrated mostly in the medium to smaller size segments. All-in-all, given the upward momentum in terms of freight returns during the past couple of weeks or so, it is yet to be seen if both buying appetite and trans- action volumes react accordingly too in the near term,” Allied Shipbroking said in its latest weekly report.

Intermodal listed the sale of the 2016-built 81,100 dwt panamax bulker Western Monaco. Japanese-owner Nisshin Shipping sold the Chinese-built vessel to South Korean owner KCH Shipping for $18.5m. The deal also includes a time charter contract.

Allied Shipbroking, Lorentzen & Stemoco, Banchero Costa all reported that Greek owner Franco Compania Naviera has offloaded its 2005-built 53,000 dwt supramax bulker Odiris to Greek buyers for $6.6m.

“On the tanker side, the market moved on the positive side in terms of activity being noted. This may well have caught some by surprise, given that freight rates remained very volatile and have already experienced a strong downward correction. However, given the general positive attitude towards this specific market, we can expect the good flow of transactions to hold for the time being,” Allied Shipbroking noted.

Seasure Shipbroking, Allied Shipbroking and Lorentzen & Stemoco all reported an en bloc deal in which UK owner Union Maritime sold two MR tankers- 1997-built 44,900 dwt Hanson and 1998-built 47,400 dwt Portman – to Chinese buyers for $5m each.

Allied Shipbroking and Anchor Shipbroking both reported that Swiss owner ABC Maritime sold two 2011-built 19,000 dwt product tankers, Adfines Sun and Adfines Sky. The two Chinese-built vessels have been sold to undisclosed interests for $10m each.

The secondhand containership sale and purchase market has seen some activities this week as a result of a number of bank-driven transactions.

“This continues to be the main source of what buyers consider ‘realistic sellers’ today,” Braemar ACM Shipbroking said.

Braemar reported that the 2006 Chinese built 1,732 teu boxship Fritz Reuter was sold by German owner Northern Shipping to UK’s Lomar Shipping for $4.1m, while another German owner, NSC, sold its 2007-built 3,398 teu boxship Nelson to undisclosed buyers for $5.2m.

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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