New building orders keep on strong so far this year says Clarksons

Despite the recent demise of the dry bulk market, ship owners across all sector of the shipping business appear to be on the bright side, although the focus and discussion have now turned to how the second half of the year will evolve. In its latest weekly report, Clarksons said that “we have We have certainly seen yards and owners continuing to push forward over the last few weeks in all sectors - and we are likely to here confirmation of further contracts concluded over the forthcoming weeks before the summer holidays start proper” said the report.
It went to add that “with Korean yards now having concluded significant business so far this year and having booked so much forward capacity - the pressure to some extent is off  and as a result we have seen values, particularly in Dry continue to firm across all the sectors. This is already started to stifle demand a little and arguably this will lead to the Wet sectors being the stellar story over the next few months or so. With a number of Suez and Afra contracts having already been inked and with values firming, it will be interesting to see if demand continues to remain resilient against continuing price escalation for this sector as well”.
According to the report, on the dry side, Grieg Shipping have signed contracts with Hyundai Mipo, Korea for 6 option 4 open hatch 48K Bulkers basis deliveries commencing Aug 2012. In addition Hyundai Mipo followed this with the signing of 6 x 36,000dwt handys' from European owners at a reported price of USD 29 Mill each, with deliveries slated for May 2013. Daewoo have also won 3 x 400k VLOC orders from Asian Owners for delivery beginning 2013. Finally for Korea, HHI have won an order from compatriot Hyundai Merchant Marine for one 180k Cape for delivery 2012.
In China there was a continuation of the dry orders with Polish Steamship (Polsteam) signing at Tianjin Xingang for 4 X 38K Handys' with deliveries to start first half 2012. Dynacom signed with COSCO for an order of 3 X 57,000dwt Supramaxes with deliveries expected from end 2011 onwards. Lastly Xiamen S.B. won an order for one 57k Supramax with their compatriot Xiamen C&D to be delivered in 2011.
Meanwhile, Samsung Heavy Industries announced that during the recent Posidonia Exhibition in Athens, it won orders for five 158,000 tons SUEZMAX-class oil tankers in the final day of the event. In a press release the company said that “In 2009, there were orders for only 25 units of the contracted SUEZMAX-class oil tanker, but thanks to the recovery of the marine transportation market, there have been contracts for 24 such oil tankers so far this year. In addition, the ship price grew by about 10% compared to January of this year, to reach USD 68 million.
Samsung Heavy Industries has recorded a contracting amount of USD 3.3 billion this year, which is 2.4 times the previous year’s amount of USD 1.4 billion. By winning this contract, the Company successfully won orders for a total of 197 units of ships (USD 40.5 billion), which guarantees revenues for the next 33 months.
Hellas, the world’s largest marine transportation powerhouse, placed orders for 50 units of ships in 2009, but the robust financial conditions of shippers and ship financing by international banks enabled the country to increase orders for ships.
Despite its national credit crisis, Hellas has already placed orders for 90 units of ships so far this year, doubling its orders of the previous year.
Analysts with Samsung Heavy Industries believe that Hellas is able to increase its orders for ships because Hellenic shippers are not affected by the national financial crisis, as they do business primarily with US and European banks, while medium-sized Hellenic shippers are increasing the number of ships to respond to the full market recovery and join the top-tier shippers. CEO of Samsung Heavy Industries Roh In-Sik said, “This year’s fair was characterized by active order placement by medium-sized shippers rather than large shippers. Major oil firms expressed high interest in our ships related to energy development, such as drill ships and LNG-FPSO”, the statement ended