GMS weekly report on shipbreaking industry for WEEK 45 of 2012:

Indian woes this week further persisted as weakening steel prices and a retreating currency left the market in the doldrums as Diwali holidays got underway.

The impact on competing markets in the sub continent was perceivable as Pakistan softened their sentiment and demand as a result and the re emerging Bangladeshi market threw some caution in their new offers, wary of the worsening situation in their competing markets.

China (and perhaps Turkey) were the only markets to show consistent demand and a keen eye to buy at competitive levels. For this reason those geographically positioned vessels (and those with Chinese flagged vessels who are able to receive tax exemptions for sales to Chinese demo buyers) profited from the poor state of the Indian sub continent market with private local sales aplenty.

For the part of India, with 40 vessels beached in October and well over 40 more expected in November, a period of downtime over Diwali holidays is perhaps just reward from what has been an extremely busy period of time.

Still, the candidates show few signs of slowing and some extreme speculation from cash buyers in recent weeks (banking on further market movement upwards) seems likely to backfire with this most recent setback on levels demand.

As with the fourth quarter of last year therefore, it is likely to be another cagey and challenging period of time up until Christmas in getting the high priced inventory successfully delivered, adapting to the new levels now on show (down by at least some USD 25/LT LDT) and satisfying the limited and fickle demand that remains.

Country	Market Sentiment	GEN CARGO Prices	TANKER Prices
Bangladesh	Cautious	USD 390/lt ldt	USD 420/lt ldt
Pakistan	Cautious	USD 390/lt ldt	USD 420/lt ldt
India	Weak	USD 390/lt ldt	USD 420/lt ldt
China	Bullish	USD 350/lt ldt	USD 370/lt ldt

Source: Steel Guru. 15 November 2012

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