Weekly Broker: Weak week indicative of falling sentiment across many sectors
Sale and purchase activities in the past week remain weak, typical for this time of year, albeit slightly improved from the start of the year. Buyer’s interest continues to focus on dry bulk tonnage.
“On the dry bulk side, the focus seemed to be firmly placed on the smaller size segments this past week, with the vast majority of concluded transactions involving either supramax or handysize vessels. These have also been the size segments that had seen relatively softer price increases over the past year and are likely still viewed by many buyers as still being at bargain levels. With earnings still holding firm, we may well see the drive in the secondhand market noted last year, continue on into this year,” Allied Shipbroking said in its latest report.
Several shipbrokers including Allied Shipbroking, Intermodal and Andreas J. Zachariassen listed a Greek owner, Thanasis Martinos’ Eastern Mediterranean Maritime, acquiring the 2012-built kamsarmax bulk carrier Azalea Sky from Japanese trading house Mitsubishi Corporation. The 80,600 dwt vessel fetched a price of $22.2m.
Sources tell Splash that Greek owner Chronos Shipping has paid slightly more (around $22.5m) for its sister ship, K Line’s 2012-built Key Spring.
The hesitant start to the year for tankers has corresponded with sluggish sales in the first half of January for this segment.
“On the tanker side, things continued to be fairly slow, and activity once again has circulated around the product tanker segments, which to many show better possibilities with regards to their earnings and trade. Things have been generally slow for the larger crude oil carriers, both in terms of activity in the secondhand market as well as in terms of earnings in the freight market, while things are unlikely to change drastically any time soon,” Allied Shipbroking said.
Multiple shipbrokring houses including Allied Shipbroking, Intermodal and Andreas J. Zachariassen all reported the sale of aframax tanker Vega Voyager while only Allied Shipbrokering identified Greek owner Anthony Comninos’ Target Marine as the buyer of the 2003-built tanker. The Greek owner acquired the vessel from Mitsui & Co’s Singapore-based OMC Shipping for $10.8m and is reportedly going to charter the vessel to PDVSA.
In the product tanker sector, more than five shipbrokers reported a deal in which German owner Mercator Navigation sold two tankers, the 73,600 dwt King Darius (2007-built) and the 73,700 dwt King Duncan enbloc for $28m, while Hartland Shipping Services revealed that Greek owner Andreas Hadjiyiannis’ Cyprus Maritime is very likely to be the buyer behind the deal.
There is only one containership S&P reported by shipbrokers in the past week. Intermodal, Allied Shipbroking and Seasure Shipbrokers reported the sale of 2,450 teu feeder containership Constantin S. In the deal, brokers suggest Singapore’s X-Press Feeders bought the 2006-built vessel from German owner H Schepers for $10.3m.
