An
oversupply of old panamax container vessels has continued to wreak havoc on the
Indian junk ship market, and several cash buyers appear to have overpaid on a
whole tranche of units.
With
Bangladesh off the pace and Indian buyers so far unwilling to match prices due
to the estimated 15-20 similar vessels on offer, and perhaps only eight or so
buyers able to take them, cash buyers found themselves in a situation where
they needed to prop up the market, in other words not allow any vessels to be
sold at lower prices.
The
world’s largest cash buyer GMS remarked that the oversupply of vessels in the
Indian market showed no signs of slowing as other owners decided to try and
cash in on the exuberant levels on show.
Offers for tankers went
as high as $460 per ldt from India, with Pakistani and Bangladeshi buyers
quoting $455 and $450 per ldt, respectively. Indian offers for general cargo
vessels hovered at around the $430 per ldt mark, with Gadani bids being $5 per ldt
behind, and those from Chittagong being a further $5 per ldt back.
China and Turkey
remained mostly absent from ship recycling activity, with their offers of $330
per ldt for tankers and $310 per ldt for dry cargo vessels paling in comparison
with bids from the Indian sub-continent.
Two sales in particular
caught the headlines, with the 13,221 ldt ro-ro vessel Eurocargo Africa hitting
a remarkable level of $493 per ldt and the 7,231 ldt Handysize bulk carrier
Mistral achieving an extraordinary mark of $470 per ldt. A full set of spares
on board both vessels contributed in part to the high prices, in addition to
the ongoing speculative push on levels.
Meanwhile, the Indian
rupee has remained stable, trading in the range of INR61-62 against the US
dollar for most of the month of February. Steel prices have remained good to
firm; and, while they might not have gained much ground, they did not fall,
either.
Brokers feel that it
might take one more cycle to get Bangladeshi buyers interested again, since their
plots are already packed with the huge number of vessels (capesize bulkers,
VLCCs, larger containers and panamax/handysize bulkers) they have imported
during the first two months of this year.
Source: sea trade
global.
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