GMS weekly report on CHINESE shipbreaking industry for WEEK 01 of 2012:

After the strong buying of previous weeks, Chinese levels cooled off a touch with capacity and overall demand drying up somewhat.

With most end buyers fulfilling their desire to stock their yards before the onset of Chinese New Year on the 23rd January, it has been a busy and fruitful few weeks in the Chinese market.

Indeed, prices have pushed on to something resembling Indian sub continent levels and with Bangladesh still officially closed and that is something that saw a number of high profile units tucked away.

It is perhaps inevitable then that prices and demand would suffer something of a comedown as the New Year approaches - for very prompt vessels there may be some appetite but all eyes will now be on how the market opens up post holidays, particularly if Bangladesh is back to the table as a rival bidder.

One deal of note saw the Spanish built ex obo SKY TREASURE concluded to buyers in the South of China for a very firm USD 429.50/LT LDT.

Source: Steel Guru (Sourced from GMS Weekly). 10 January 2012

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