GMS weekly report on Indian ship breaking industry for WEEK 29 of 2013:

Without any genuine signs of a market recovery evident, talk in the industry is that the worst is over and the market can only move one way from here. To that end, several cash buyers already started to speculate on tonnage again, with some interesting numbers seen on available vessels.

The Cyprus Maritime container CSL STEFANIE (17,579 LDT) achieved some strong numbers approaching USD 440/LT LDT with the concerned buyer supposedly paying extra for bunkers over 200 Tons (at demo market 50 percent value). The vessel is rumored to be arriving with about 1000 Tons of bunkers on board.

Good sized and well-maintained units are always likely to receive a premium and demand in India is certainly returning for such vessels with most buyers having opted out of filling their yards whilst market fundamentals remained ever-so turbulent.

However, with fewer vessels available in the market due to the traditional summer slowdown, Ramadan celebrations and less than impressive prices on offer, it may be some time before yards start to fill once again.

As the currency returned to some sort of stability (with the rupee trading below 60 to the Dollar for the best part of the week after government intervention), and with local steel plate prices showing some further gains, it could be an interesting few weeks ahead for the Indian market.

Source: Steel Guru. 23 July 2013

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