GMS weekly report on ship breaking industry for WEEK 24 of 2013:

A dramatic week in the Indian sub-continent saw the Indian rupee reach a historical low of Rs. 58.99 against the U.S Dollar along with the announcement of the Bangladesh and Pakistan budgets.

First off to Bangladesh, where the budget has remained neutral for the most part. In Pakistan as well, news of a comparatively neutral budget left the market relatively unchanged. This outcome maintained a bullishness in cash buyer offers for almost all sub-continent markets.

Meanwhile, the news of the currency in India was not quite so encouraging, even though the Indian Rupee had started to settle back down in the low 57s to the US Dollar, as the week ended. Steel prices also saw some marginal gains to offset some of the dramatic falls in the last few weeks.

Indeed, news of the Bangladesh and Pakistan budgets should push prices up in the Indian sub-continent, where demand and sentiment have been overly sluggish of late.

On the other side, a disastrous last few months in China have left prices marooned well below the USD 300/LT LDT and just above on different types of tonnage. These levels are no longer competitive at all with the Indian sub-continent as local end buyers are losing out on man' vessels as a result.

Despite the ongoing monsoon season and volatility in steel prices / currency in India, the week has concluded with some optimism.

For week 24 of 2013, GMS demo rankings for the week are as below:

Country	Market Sentiment	GEN CARGO Prices	TANKER Prices
Pakistan	Cautious	USD 400/lt ldt	USD 425/lt ldt
India	Weak	USD395/ltldt	USD 420/lt ldt
Bangladesh	Weak	USD395/ltldt	USD 420/lt ldt
China	Weak	USD 310/lt ldt	USD 330/lt ldt

Source: steelguru. 18 Jun 2013

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