The seven-year-old Hammonia Grenada,
delivered in 2010, has taken pole position as the youngest container ship ever
sold for scrap. The previous record-holder, the Panamax Rickmers India, was
delivered in 2009 and sold to shipbreakers last month. A brokerage data firm
reported a sale price for the Grenada of $315 per LDT, or about $5.5 million.
Brokers say that the demolition is a
confirmation of the plummeting value of Panamax ships after the opening of the
expanded Panama Canal. Vessels of up to twice the capacity of the India and
Grenada can now carry containers on trans-Pacific routes to the U.S. East Coast
and to Latin American hubs like Freeport, Santos and Buenos Aires. With lower
slot costs, this "Neopanamax" vessel class has made the older Panamax
ships less competitive in an oversupplied market, and shipowners are finding it
increasingly difficult to charter or sell 4,500 TEU vessels. Panamaxes lost
about two thirds of their value in 2016, and they are headed to the breakers in
record numbers: BIMCO said in November that boxship demolitions reached an
all-time high for the ten months ending in October and accelerated in the
second half, led by Panamax scrapping.
The Chinese-built Grenada (ex name CSAV
Laraquete) is the second mid-size boxship scrapped by Hammonia in the past
year, following the 3,100 TEU Westphalia, another relatively young vessel.
While the buyer of the Portuguese-flagged Grenada was not disclosed, the
Westphalia went to a Bangladeshi yard. Advocates including NGO Shipbreaking
Platform have called on the European Commission to ban the sale of
European-flagged vessels to yards in South Asia under new ship recycling regulations,
which are expected to take effect in the next two years. If effective and
enforceable, a ban could have an effect on market dynamics: the prices paid by
yards in Turkey and China may be as much as one third less than South Asian
scrap values.
Source:
maritime-executive.
11 January 2017
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