GMS weekly report on ShipBreaking industry for WEEK 03 of 2012:

It has been a bumper week to celebrate the 500th issue of the GMS weekly going to print! Deals done to all tour major markets and improving sentiment proved that there is still life in an industry that had taken a veritable beating during the last quarter of 2011. The recent past has been something of a slower recovery, but as the candidates keep on coming and as steel prices remain firm, the Indian sub continent market has shown its tenacity to buy once again with some interesting looking purchases.

China however secured the pick of the bunch with three Korean owned bulkers heading to end buyers in both North and South, as the gap appears to have closed to only USD 25/LT LDT with their sub continent competitors. Indeed, it will be a well earned break for the Chinese market, which has taken the lion's share of the tonnage so far this year, at increasingly competitive numbers. It will be interesting to see how the market opens up post New Year holidays (in about 2 weeks) to see whether yards there can continue to rival the Indian sub continent recyclers on a consistent basis.

The speculative buying for both Pakistan and India has once again ramped up, with many cash buyers eyeing recoveries in the Indian currency and impending budgets, as a sign that greater timings lie in wait, in terms of levels and demand. Bangladesh had to endure another week iii the shadows despite the market remaining officially open there, the impending import tax issue has left many end buyers nervous to commit on new units. Until a resolution is reached locally, it may be difficult to see Bangladesh buying with any sort of aggression for the time being.

For week 03 of 2012, GMS demo rankings for the week are as below:

Country	Market Sentiment	Gen Cargo Prices	Tanker Prices
India	Bullish	USD 475/lt ldt	USD 500/lt ldt
Pakistan	Bullish	USD 470/lt ldt	USD 495/lt ldt
Bangladesh	Weak	USD 460/lt ldt	USD 485/lt ldt
China	Cautious	USD 420/lt ldt	USD 440/lt ldt

Source: Steel Guru (Sourced from GMS Weekly). 24 January 2011

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