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Weekly Broker: Tanker bargains to be had

The tanker S&P market saw ample volume of activities this past week despite the prolonged uninspiring trend noted in the chartering market.

The fairly good level of concluded deals may be attributed to the continuously dropping tanker S&P values.

Timos Papadimitriou, an S&P broker at Intermodal, said tanker values have come under significant pressure from the start of the year.

“Leaving aside the Ocean Tankers fleet, there is a scarcity of 5 to 10-year-old crude tankers on sale. There is a slightly higher supply of candidates for sale in the 13-16-year-old tanker vessel segment. The question is whether one should invest in a 15-year old crude tanker under a market that shows little signs of recovery,” Papadimitriou wrote in a recent market commentary.

Allied Shipbroking’s Indicative Tanker Values show average prices for nearly all tanker segments dropped by different levels, especially in the large vintage tanker segments where the average price for a 15-year-old 250,000 dwt VLCC decreased by around 7.5% in the past month.

More than eight shipbroking houses reported the sale of the 2003-built VLCC Voyager 1. Greek owner NGM Energy sold the South Korean-built crude tanker to Middle Eastern buyers for$25.5m.

Multiple shipbroking houses reported that Japanese owner Nagashiki Shipping sold its 2012-built 46,000 dwt MR2 tanker Nord Sakura while Seasure Shipbroking identified the buyer as Greek owner Coral Shipping. The Japanese-built vessel has fetched a price of $16.35m.

The positive momentum in the secondhand bulker S&P market has been sustained in recent days.

According to Alibra’s latest report, capesize time charter rates remained flat this week as the market came under pressure from a fall in rates in the spot market, while short term period rates for panamaxes increased across both basins and the smaller size segments moved sideways.

Lorentzen & Stemoco, Alibra Shipping, and Advanced Shipping & Trading all reported the en bloc sale of three 92,000 dwt post panamax bulkers -2011-built Topas and 2012-built Turmalin and Tuerkis. German owner Conti Holdings sold the three Chinese-built vessels to compatriot buyers for a price of $12.2m each.

Both Banchero Costa and Lorentzen & Stemoco reported that Greek owner Technomar Shipping sold its 2007-built 58,000 dwt supramax bulker Queen Jhansi. The Chinese-built vessel is believed to have been sold to Indonesian buyers for a price of $7.75m.

Alibra Shipping and Banchero Costa both identified Greek owner Tide Line as the buyer of the 2011-built handy bulker King Corn. Vietnamese owner Van Yu Trading sold the Japanese-built vessel for an undisclosed price. The vessel has been renamed Ammos.

In the containership S&P market, according to Braemar ACM Shipnbroking, sales activity has notably slowed, not through lack of buyers but through a distinct lack of workable tonnage above 3,500 teu.

“Unsurprisingly a number of owners are revising price ideas up or withdrawing vessels entirely to fix into next year at today’s firm rates,” Braemar stated in a weekly report.

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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