As the Indian market continues to impress, despite tails in the opening days of the week, competing markets were left trailing in their wake.
Steel prices, along with other non ferrous materials such as copper, coupled with demand and capacity remained strong across the board and that is leading to decent prices on a seemingly endless supply of tonnage.
For the most part, the early part of the year has seen the majority of vessels sold on the dry bulk front, but the last week saw owners of different types such as containers and reefers cashing in on booming levels.
As the first month of 2011 comes to a close, cash buyer speculation has reached unprecedented levels. Some would say those that continue to buy at strong levels on an as is basis are gambling, but the fundamentals remain strong and the Bangladesh buyers remain desperate to buy, with all concerned trying their utmost to find solutions in order to facilitate a market reopening.
No new permissions to beach are likely to be in place over the course of January after an unfortunate accident last week that left many questioning once again, the safety standards in Bangladesh
Those ships that had received NOCs prior to the most recent ruling may be able to beach next tide, but the situation is looking tricky for any new candidates and another wait may be on the cards before the relevant authorities and recyclers can get their affairs in order.
Despite that, progress appeared to be forthcoming in the early part of January with at least 40 more yards receiving clearance to import ships. However, all of this is irrelevant without the ability to clear ships inward for beaching. For the time being at least, it may be back to drawing board.
Some interesting sales for the week ensured India India but Pakistan
A recovery by the end of the week saw some of the aggressive buying continue and certain vessels were committed at uncomfortably high numbers. The chief of those was the reefer BUKHTA OMEGA (going for well in excess of USD 540/LT LDT some USD 75 above the normal price of a reefer). The major reason for this appears to be the 60 T or so of copper found on board the vessel and the booming price of the metal globally (and current limited supply).
Nevertheless, there remains good demand for vessels between 5-12,000 LDT (a favorable size since many recyclers have capacity for same, for all types of units).
It appears as though containers may be firmly back on the menu after the recent binge on dry units most notably panamax and capesize bulkers several units should expect to register in the coming weeks.
Furthermore, with plenty of 'as is' vessels still on the books of inundated cash buyers (and with Chinese holidays imminent and Bangladesh still no nearer to resolving their closure), the supply will keep on coming for hungry breakers seemingly in a never-ending quest for tonnage.
Source: SteelGuru (Sourced from GMS Weekly); Tuesday, 25 Jan 2011
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