Weekly Broker: Lighter Posidonia hangover a sign of the bargains on offer
The normal Posidonia hangover in the S&P markets has not been as keenly felt this year, a likely sign that owners continue to waste little time to hoover up bargains before prices start to accelerate northwards. Yes, activity did slacken as partygoers reached for the Nurofen, but this edition of Weekly Broker is still busy with concluded deals, with the most interesting upsurge seen in the boxship sector.
The chartering market in all bulker segments has been positive during the past week. The capesize market strengthened further as a number of fresh cargoes became available out of Brazil and Australia, while panamax sector remains positive, with rates being supported by a steady flow of fresh cargoes out of Africa, the US Gulf and North, Central and South America.
Chinese buyers’ appetite for older bulkers remain firm. According to Clarkson, the 2002-built panamax bulker Atlantic Hawk was sold by Greek owner Stavros Livanos’ Alios Bulkers to Chinese buyers. The 74,204 dwt, Japanese-built vessel has fetched a price of $9.5m. Additionally, Jinhui Shipping sold the 2001-built 50,777 dwt supramax Jin Fu to Chinese interests for $8.7m.
Intermodal and Banchero Costa have linked the sales of the 2009-built 33,387dwt handymax bulker King Wheat with Dutch owner Orient Shipping, which is said to have paid $12m for the Japanese-built vessel.
“On the tanker side, it seems as though we are still holding at firm activity levels, with buying appetite having seemingly return back after a fair absence. There is still a fair amount of enbloc deals taking place, while prices overall are still looking to be softer than what we have been seeing in previous months. Overall however, this increased activity and firmer buying interest may well help keep prices buoyant moving forward or even help push for slightly better levels over the coming months,” Allied Shipbroking said in its latest weekly report.
On the crude tanker chartering market, the VLCC segment remains active and steady, the suezmax remained soft and rates in the aframax segment continued to decline.
More than eight shipbroking houses reported a deal in which the 2007-built MR2 tanker Iver Exact has been sold by Dutch owner Iver Ships to Greek owner Spring Marine Management. The 46,900 dwt Hyundai Mipo-built tanker has fetched a price of $14m.
Several shipbroking houses listed the sale of the 2004-built MR tanker Endeavour. Greek owner IMS is said to have taken over the ownership of the 46,100 dwt STX-built vessel for $9.9m.
Additionally Allied Shipbroking and Lorentzen & Stemoco have identified very active Indonesian owner Waruna as the buyer behind the sale of the 2001-built MR tanker Aikaterini. The 35,700 dwt Korean-built vessel was sold by Greek owner Varco for a price of $6.2m. Earlier this week, Splash reported that Waruna acquired a MR tanker CPO Larisa Hestia from German owner Claus-Peter Offen.
In the secondhand containership sale and purchase market, the past week has seen increasing numbers of ships fixed to new owners.
The weekly Bramer ACM Shipbroking report shows that the 2008-built 6,600 teu NYK Terra has been sold to Singapore’s Sea Consortium for $25m, having been inspected by a number of parties. The vessel will become the largest owned vessel in the Sea Consortium fleet.
Lorentzen & Stemoco, Intermodal and Optima all identified Chinese owner SITC as the buyer of the 2007-built 2,700 teu Buxharmony, paying around $14.5m for the vessel.
Additionally, Seasure Shipbroking, Intermodal and Andreas J. Zachariassen listed the sale of the 2002-built 2,490 teu Suffolk Trader. The German-built vessel was sold by Lomar Shipping to Orient Express Lines for $8.3m.
