The secondhand dry bulk sale and purchase market eased back in the past few days in line with the chartering market taking a bit of a breather this week after reaching decade-highs at the start of the month. The slowdown doesn’t seem to worry brokers, however, who believe the momentum of healthy rates will continue while the uncertainty in the market has shrunk.
“Even though we had fewer number of deals compared to the week prior, interest for secondhand tonnage remains vivid across both the tanker and dry bulk sectors, with MR candidates still feeling a lot of love by tanker buyers, while revived appetite for capes remains vivid albeit it is still insignificant compared to that for smaller dry bulk vessels,” Intermodal said in its latest weekly report.
There has been an increasing interest from many buyers for panamax vessels around 15 years old, while handysizes have not quite followed the upward trend of the freight market in recent months and there has been a major depreciation of 10-year-old handy bulkers.
Allied Shipbroking’s indicative dry bulk values show that the average price for 15-year-old 74,000 dwt panamax bulkers increased by 8.1% to $10m in the past month while the average price for 10-year-old 32,000 dwt handysize bulkers dropped by 9.1% to $10m during the same period.
This week, Chinese buyers are the most active ones on the S&P market.
Intermodal reported that John Fredriksen’s Seatankers Management sold its 2012-built panamax bulker Sea Rising to Chinese interests. The 76,200 dwt vessel has fetched a price of $14m.
Multiple shipbroking houses reported the en bloc sale of two 56,000 dwt supramax bulkers – the 2011-built Pintail and the 2012-built Scoter. Greek owner Navarone sold the two Chinese-built bulkers to Chinese buyers for $10.8m and $11.4m respectively.
Lorentzen & Stemoco, Intermodal and Advanced Shipping & Trading all reported that Chinese bulker owner ATL Shipping sold its 1996-built panamax bulker Pacific Knight to fellow Chinese interests. The Imabari-built vessel was sold for a high price of $6.5m.
The tanker S&P market has seen limited activities for yet another week, with the crude carrier market showing further discounts.
Both Intermodal and Allied Shipbroking reported the sale of the 2002-built 45,770 dwt MR tanker Astral Express. The Japanese-built vessel was sold by the Tung family-controlled Island Navigation to Chinese interests for $8.5m.
Seasure Shipbroking identified Indonesian owner Arcadia Shipping and Trading as the buyer of the 2004-built 8,600 dwt chemical tanker Sunrise Eco. The Shin Kurushima-built vessel was sold for a price of $7.8m and renamed Emeryn.
In the containership S&P market, according to Braemar ACM Shipbroking, the strengthening charter market for larger vessels continues to drive buying interest in the container space, although there is a still a considerable gap between buyers and sellers price ideas.
Braemar reported that Navigare Capital has acquired two 13,400 teu vessels- the 2011-built Faustina and the 2010-built Filomena from German owner Peter Dohle on private terms under a sale and leaseback arrangement.
Additionally, it has been reported that Vancouver-based Seaspan has acquired an unnamed 2010-built 9,600 teu vessel on private terms, with the vessel set to enter a three-year time charter with ONE.
