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Weekly Broker: Quietest before dawn

The summer lull became acute this past week with the fewest deals done for many months. However, Weekly Broker is confident that come next Thursday we’ll be able to report on a raft of deals as negotiations are underway across many sectors and principles return to work.

According to Alibra’s weekly comment, the general bulk shipping market has been stable and healthy this week while there has not been too much movement in the tanker market.

“Capesize rates have remained stable and slightly firmer in the east but on the whole, along with cargo levels, the market has been somewhat uninspiring, thanks to seasonality and weather delays in China,” Alibra said.

Alibra expects a slight increase in tanker chartering activity in the next week or so.

Intermodal, Banchero Costa and Lorentzen & Stemoco all reported the sale of the 2012-built 28,000 dwt handymax bulker Gloria Island. Greek owner Order Shipping acquired the Japanese-built vessel from Japanese owner Yahata Kisen for a low price of around $10m, compared with the $14.8m MSI reckons the vessel is actually worth.

Multiple shipbroking houses reported the en bloc sale of three 82,000 dwt kamsarmax bulkers – the 2013-built Ocean Scorpio, the 2012-built Ocean Virgo and the 2013-built Ocean Libra. The three vessels were sold by Chinese commodity trader Zhejiang Materials Industry (ZMI) to undisclosed Chinese interests for a price of $17.5m each. Through the sale, ZMI has cleared out its fleet and exited shipowning.

More than five shipbroking houses listed the sale of the 2011-built 57,353 dwt supramax EM Crystal. China Minsheng Trust sold the STX Dalian-built vessel to Chinese interests for about $12m.

The secondhand tanker market has been extremely slow in the past week.

Lorentzen & Stemoco listed a deal in which the 2007-built 51,000dwt MR tanker PTI Phoenix was sold by Hong Kong’s Parakou Shipping to undisclosed Greek interests. The South Korean-built vessel has fetched a price of $12.5m.

There has been no secondhand containerships transactions to report in the past week.

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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