27 December 2017

GMS Market Commentary on Shipbreaking in Week 51 - GOOD CHEER SPREADS!

As the holiday season approaches and Ship Owners and Brokers take time off to spend with their loved ones, an imminently quieter few weeks ahead are perhaps rather welcomed, given what have been a frantic few weeks of recycling activity, with much of the (recycling) focus falling on the wet and offshore sectors of late.

Moreover, even though the markets recently witnessed a flurry of early-to-mid 90s built Capesize bulker sales from the Korean market (ones that were coming off government charters and being sold for scrap), it has been remarkably quiet on the dry (and container) recycling fronts this year as freight rates in both these sectors have made decent recoveries.

The general feeling is that the pain being felt in the wet and offshore sectors is set to last a little longer and even going into 2018, an expectedly large volume of VLCCs (those on storage and otherwise) seem destined to come under the torch. In fact, this year alone, the markets have seen 14 VLCCs and about 25 Aframax tankers committed for scrap so far, most of which have ended up in Bangladesh.

On the industry front, given the large number of tankers sold for recycling this year and a slowdown on the dry side as well, it has been an exceptionally challenging (and frustrating) period for Gadani recyclers who have found themselves regularly paying over the odds (often as the highest placed sub-continent market), just to secure any of the working (dry) units that have made it for sale thus far.

In fact, for the past 3-4 months, there have been whispers that the Pakistani market will open up for tankers again, albeit with stricter gas free for hot works standards (similar to those India and Bangladesh). However, discussions / meetings with the Pakistani government and PSBA are still ongoing as to how soon local authorities will permit tankers into the local market once again, after the tragic accident which cost scores of lives earlier in the year.

Source: steel guru. 27 Dec 2017

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