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Weekly Broker: Deals filter through despite holiday lull

The effect of summer holidays continues to show in the sale and purchase market with more potential buyers moving to the sidelines of the beach.

The latest Fearnleys weekly report shows that rates came off slightly for capesizes this week after a strong previous week, while the panamax sector has experienced another week with little trading and slowing rates in the North Atlantic, and improvement can only be seen in the supramax sector in the US Gulf area.

“On the dry bulk side, things were relatively unchanged against what has been witnessed over the past couple of weeks. Activity still remains relatively slow compared to what we had become accustomed to during the early part of the year. A notable drop has already started to take shape in the older age groups across most size segments. Overall buying interest however continues to remain for more modern vessels while given the general upward trend noted in the freight market, we may well expect activity to increase further, especially in the capesize segment were rates are still at an all year high,” Allied Shipbroking said in its latest weekly report.

Intermodal has identified the buyer of the 2011-built supramax bulker Sagar Jyoti as Hong Kong owner Pacific Basin. The 58,110 dwt Chinese-built vessel is sold by Japanese owner Kyoei Tankers for $16.5m. With Japanese tonnage becoming harder and harder to source, Pacific Basin, Hong Kong’s largest owner by fleet numbers, has been forced to find decent Chinese alternatives to grow its fleet.

Multiple shipbroking houses reported the sale of the 2008-built supramax Tschaikowsky. Clarkson identified the buyer as German owner A.O. Schiffahrt. The 58,790 dwt vessel was sold by Borealis Finance in an auction for $14m.

In the panamax segment, Banchero Costa, Intermodal and Allied Shipbroking all reported a deal in which the 1998-built Genco Surprise was sold by Genco Shipping & Trading to Chinese interests. The 72,500 dwt vessel has fetched a price of $5.5m.

Clarkson also listed a deal in which Greek owner Aegean Bulk sold its 2002-built 75,000 dwt panamax bulker Poseidon to Chinese owner Ningbo Hezhong Shipping for $9.5m. The South Korean-built vessel has been renamed Jin Ning 77.

In the tanker chartering sector, Alibra noted in its latest weekly report that the holiday lull was now evident.

“There has been steady interest in the period markets for crude. However, as the market enters the holiday season, we anticipate a quiet few weeks ahead as owners and charterers get in to the holiday mood,” Alibra reported.

Despite the slowing chartering market, a series of en bloc deals in the past week have keep tanker S&P markets ticking over.

“On the tankers side, despite being in the midst of the summer period, there was a sudden jump noted in reported activity this past week. Once again, this increase was mainly nourished by a fair amount of en bloc deals that took place. With all being said, the current increase in activity and buying interest may well start to feed a slow reversal in the general price trend that has been noted lately,” Allied Shipbroking said.

Splash reported last week that Hafnia Tankers and Scorpio Tankers have each completed an en bloc sale and leaseback deal for two tankers.

More than eight shipbroking houses listed the sale of the 2009-built MR tanker Silver Express. The 47,000 dwt vessel was sold by Japanese owner Doun Kisen to Greek interests for $15.3m.

Clarkson reported the auction sale of the 2013-built 4,400 dwt small product tanker Lian Run 158. Guangxi Wuzhou Tongzhou Shipping took over the vessel from Nanjing Lianrun Shipping for RMB55.16m ($8.09m).

The secondhand containership sale and purchase sector has been very quiet recently with few transactions.

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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