The market of the moment enjoyed another
stellar week with local steel prices shooting up over a number of consecutive
days during the early part of the week, leaving Cash Buyers desperately
scrambling to secure any available tonnage at worryingly speculative levels.
One such case saw the smaller LDT research
vessel NORTHERN EXPLORER (2,106
LDT) sold for an unbelievable USD 510/LDT,
with the USD 500/LDT mark now distinctly breached (especially for a vessel
without non-ferrous), for the first time since the potent days of early 2015
before the crash and subsequent painful recession.
The vessel was originally built in Singapore,
modified in Landskrona (Sweden) in 1998, is diesel-electric driven, furnished
with impressively large generators, has valuable equipment onboard including
bronze spare propeller blades – all of which convinced an amazingly bullish
Cash Buyer to take a punt so high above the market, a giant question mark
remains hanging on the profitability of this deal!
Meanwhile, in a perfect alignment of the
stars for Indian Recyclers, in addition to firming local steel plate prices,
the Indian Rupee too gained ground to finish trading in the low Rs. 64s against
the U.S. Dollar, having been previously traded over Rs. 65 in months before.
Unfortunately, as the week ended, local steel
plate prices started to turn shaky as levels gradually dropped. As such, what
will happen to sentiment and prices this week remains to be seen.
Finally, in further decisive news from the
Indian market and following on from the government decree from earlier this
year that mandated yard upgrades to HK SoC standard for all recycling
facilities, it has been reported this week that those recyclers who fail to
upgrade their yards to the required standards risk facing fines and even short
term jail times - in a move rather critical for the ship recycling industry in
India.
Source:
steel
guru. 20 December 2017
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