Singapore:
Ship recyclers continue to struggle to break even amid very depressed prices,
warns the boss of one of the world’s leading cash buyers for scrapped ships.
Rakesh
Khetan (Billu) is the CEO of Singapore’s Wirana Shipping Corporation, which
typically negotiates between 100 to 150 vessels annually.
“The market
for ship recycling is quite dull as prices are quite low. This is a result of
commodities slump and oil prices dragging it down further,” Khetan says.
Khetan
expects that prices have at least bottomed out and should range between $350 to
400 per ldt in the next six to12 months.
The biggest
challenge facing the industry at the moment, Khetan reckons, is the dumping of
Chinese steel into the subcontinent markets where ship steel is sold.
“It is very
difficult for the ship recyclers to compete when imported steel is cheaper than
the ship steel,” Khetan explains. While local governments have tried to stop this
dumping, they have failed as Chinese sellers drop their prices and have
absorbed the increase in duty on imported steel.
Source: splash 24/7. 29 July 2015
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