Dry Bulk: Panamaxes are Traded Everywhere as Ship Owners believe Current Prices are Favorable
Ship owners of dry bulk seem set for more deals for second hand carriers. This is because the prices appear to have stabilized over the course of the past few weeks.
The shipbroker Alibra Shipping, in the latest report, observed that the current period is the right time to buy bulk carriers as asset prices are low. The Baltic Exchange assessed the price of a five-year-old, 74,000-dwt Panamax at $13.6 m. As compared to 18 months ago at $20 m, this is a steep fall.
However, the value of the Baltic’s benchmark Panamax has been appreciating ever since hitting an all-time low of $11.14m on March 29 this year. This seems to have stabilised.
Baltic assessment for this week is an increase of just $7,000. Alibra’s assessment is $21m for prompt resales, around $9m for five year old vessels and around $6m for 10-year-old Panamaxes. The market feeler is that it is a good time to pick up second hand units.
During July, Greek buyers picked a major chunk of 13 S&P transactions for Panamax and Kamsarmax bulk carriers.
The majority of the Panamaxes sold this year have been built in Japan (37 vessels). Chinese and Korean yards accounted for just 17 and 16 vessels respectively.
Dry bulk
The shipbroker Intermodal noted that there was a buying spree including a number of en-bloc sales which took place last week as prospective buyers in both the dry bulk and tanker sectors seemed keen to invest before heading off on their summer holidays. Greek buyers bought the “MATILDE CORRADO” (72,863dwt-blt 02, S. Korea) at $4.9m.
Alibra noted that there was a general fall over the past week. They reached the highest rates for 2015 recently. Supras fell to $6900 and $6300 for Atlantic and Pacific voyages respectively. Large tonnage has seen the largest decrease over the past week. BPI and BCI both fall between 14 and 15 percent w-o-w to 719 and 780, Capes are currently at their lowest point since mid-May.
Tanker – Downtrend
Libra noted that continuing the downtrend, Handies and Afras experienced small w-o-w declines for shorter periods, with a 1 year Handy rates declining to $13,750 and 2 year Afra rates down from $20,000 to $19,000. 1 year MR rates are down $750 to $14,250 from last week with 2 year LR2 rates down since last week to $20,250, both attributed to continued excess capacity relative to long haul cargo availability. Long period rates have also fallen, with VLCCs at $34,000 for 3 years and $35,500 for 5 year periods.
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Ref.: Hellenic Shipping
