GMS weekly report on shipbreaking industry for Week 51 of 2011:

Currency woes in the Indian market continued to beset the industry, as this week, the Bangladeshi buyers got wind of recent developments and started to peg their levels accordingly i.e. well below the USD 500/LT LDT.

For an industry that, for the most part, has been on an upward trajectory since the lows of late 2008 or early 2009, it may be that levels of USD 500/LT LDT and up, represented a stretch too far for most end buyers as they struggled to make any money on their deals concluded (let alone breakeven).

Those owners that managed to cash in at USD 500/LT LDT and above might consider themselves extremely lucky, for it looks as though the more moderate 400s are the comfortable reality for most. These are still historically strong numbers (ship recycling is probably one of the only industries to have nearly doubled since the collapse a few years ago), just not the lucrative payday many may have been hoping for, from the highs experienced during the year.

So, as WC India and their price trailing neighbors Pakistan, struggled on, Bangladeshi buyers were not able to make any sense of the Court Order, with most unwilling to bid on vessels until after the Jan 12th hearing and the official go ahead to import units once again.

China, for the second week in a row was the big hitter in an otherwise gloomy end to the year for the industry. Local buyers in both North and South continued to pick up their share of units at increasingly strong (and competitive with the sub continent) numbers, in a fitting end to another monumental year for the recycling industry there.

For week 51 of 2011, GMS demo rankings for the week are as below:

Country	Market Sentiment	Gen Cargo Prices	Tanker Prices
Pakistan	Cautious	USD 455/lt ldt	USD 485/lt ldt
India	Weak	USD 450/lt ldt	USD 480/lt ldt
China	Weak	USD 425/lt ldt	USD 445/lt ldt
Bangladesh	Weak	N/A	N/A

Source: Steel Guru (Sourced from GMS Weekly). 27 December 2011

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