Container ships keep dominating new building orders

New building orders for container ships have kept stealing the spotlight in the market during the past few weeks, as more and more companies are trying to prepare themselves for the expected rise of global container trade, especially from 2013 onwards. Hot on the heels of Maersk’s mega

order for at least 10 Triple-Es, i.e. the largest ship type currently available with a capacity of 18,000-TEUs each, OOCL confirmed an order of $816 million with Samsung for six ships of near 14,000 TEUs each, the largest ships the company has ever operated.
According to the latest weekly report from Clarksons, “the demand from the operators for the very large ships seems to remain firm - as the fight for market share and maximising economies of scale continues. It will be interesting to see if this spate of ordering continues and very interesting to see if the large Japanese Liner companies also join the ordering frenzy being witnessed at the moment. There have been a total of 17 firm container ships over 10,000 TEU ordered so far this month and if all options are declared for these firm orders, this will rise to 40 ships!
With the liner companies seemingly focusing on the largest super post panamax ships, it will be interesting to see how the newbuilding market continues to develop for the smaller feeders and new generation of post-panamax 3-7,000 TEU Vessels. We believe that the trend will continue, of non historical container owners entering the sector and becoming tonnage providers for the lines, servicing the very important inter-regional and feeding trade. One thing remains certain - with the giant ships on the long haul routes there will more than likely be a strong demand for shorter haul feeding off from the large container ports - and again this adds further strength to the broader container newbuilding story” said the world’s leading shipbroking company.
In terms of reported business; In Dry, Samho Shipbuilding are reported to have won an order from Manta Denizcilik Nakliyat for a pair of 35,000dwt Handysize bulkers with deliveries due in 1Q 2012. In Containers, as already said, OOCL have signed 6 option 4 x 13,800 TEU Vessels at Samsung H.I. at a reported price of USD 136 Mill per vessel and deliveries from 2013 onwards.
In a separate analysis, Golden Destiny said that 12 new orders were reported in total during the course of the previous week. The exact figure of the invested capital remains unknown since 10 of the 12 orders (all of which in the container sector where reported at undisclosed prices). This week the only interest reported was in the container and special cargo sector. From the ordering activity, both sectors lately appear to be very attractive and with investment opportunities. “The Greek presence has been noticed this week in 4 transactions reported in the secondhand and 4 in the newbuilding market. The preference in the secondhand market was towards bulkcarriers, while the total invested capital was region $ 105,5 mil. In the newbuilding market the Greek presence was noticed only in the container panamax sector, however the invested capital remains undisclosed” mentioned the shipbroker.
It added that in the secondhand market, 25 vessels reported to have changed hands this week equalling a total amount of money invested around of US$ 806,500,000, with four transactions reported on private terms. In terms of reported number of transactions, the S&P activity remained on the same level with last week, while is down by region 42% comparable with previous year’s weekly S&P activity when 43 vessels induced buyers’ interest. In terms of invested capital, the container sector appears to be the most overweight with around US$ 360 mil invested in the sector, a 44.5% share of the total invested capital in the S&P secondhand market.
“In the demolition market, 22 vessels reported to have been headed to the scrap yards of total deadweight 669,300 tons, with the most of activity being concentrated on the dry sector. In terms of reported number of transactions, the Demolition activity has been marked with a 46.5 % positive w-o-w change, while in terms of deadweight the weekly change was almost at 100% (91.5%), which means that bigger vessels headed the scrapyards. In terms of scrap rates, the highest scrap rate has been achieved this week by Bangladesh for a general cargo vessel that seems to obtained $ 525/ldt, however an old sale and also we remain cautious since the situation in Bangladesh we understand hasn’t yet been stabilised” concluded the report.
Nikos Roussanoglou, Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide