Period rates for super-post-panamax vessels are finally picking up after
rash of fixtures. More than 50 units lined up for trans-Panama services.
At last fortunes are beginning to improve for very large tramp container ships even though the impact on the wider[ds_preview] tramp market is pretty negligible so far. The trend had been obvious for some time already: With the impending opening of the new set of locks and the lifting of vessel size restrictions in the Panama Canal, liner operators have been scrambling to upgrade their service offerings on routes through the canal – chiefly for the Far East/US East Coast traffic. A good number of extra very large container ships had to be chartered from tramp owners to upgrade today’s panamax vessel strings and take the economies of scale to a new level. The consequent drop in spot tonnage availability finally saw fixing levels improve, as highlighted by the fixture of the 8,814TEU »Northern Jasper« to Maersk Line at 9,500$/day for a minimum 6-month period (max 12 months) starting in the Far East in July. Another tramp vessel, the 8,204TEU »E.R. Tokyo«, was reported fixed to Japanese major NYK for a slightly lower 9,350$/day which could be explained by the less flexible period arrangement of 6–8 months. These levels are almost 1,000$ above last done in this segment and owners are said to be pushing for another hike to around 10,000$/day for the next open positions which are several weeks ahead (»July/August«). »For tonnage above 7,000TEU we are basically sold out on a spot/prompt basis,« as one major chartering broker pointed out. »Rates in the 6,500 TEU and 8,500 TEU sizes are definitely on the move with all the prompt tonnage being removed from the market,«concurred another broker from Hamburg. Paris-based Alphaliner said it is still tracking two very large charter vessels in excess of 7,500TEU that are available for employment at short notice. Still this marks a spectacular reduction from the 15 open vessels competing for charters out in Asia during the worst of the downturn in January this year. Most of the ships that have left the spot tonnage list are apparently heading for employment on upgraded Far East/US East Coast services. More than 50 vessels in the size range from 6,000 to 10,000 TEU were to be assigned to such strings, replacing around 80 traditional panamax vessels of 4,000–5,100TEU, according to Alphaliner. While the fresh tonnage demand related to trans-Panama services spawned first gains for very large units, the next smaller classes of post-panamax vessels (5,500TEU, 6,500 TEU) failed to obtain meaningful market increases so far. Spot availability in the size spectrum of 5,300–7,500TEU was seen contracting from 46 to 23 units since April, Alphaliner said, but those left were still competing hard enough against each other for charterers to call the shots. Managers of the insolvent KG vessel »Ilse Wulff« (6,966TEU) saw no other option than to fix the vessel at 6,000$/day for 2–12 months to Maersk Line while the Greek-owned 5,576TEU »March« concluded a 7–12 months period at 6,075$ with Maersk subsidiary Seago for an East Med/Black Sea deployment.
Meanwhile the conventional panamax container vessels of 4,000–5,100TEU is under extreme stress again with the volume of unemployed tonnage on the increase due to redeliveries of vessels from trans-Panama services and a slowdown in demolition sales. Market rates have been cemented at around 5,000$/day and the number of spot ships is reported to have ticked up from 42 to 47 units in the first half of June.
Most of these (31) are baby panamax units of 4,200–4,300TEU, according to one German broker. Sentiment in the panamax segment is generally depressed with no plausible explanation at hand why the tonnage situation should improve in the short run. Demolition sales have helped curb the supply of tramp ships in this segment but the activity has recently calmed down as demo prices dropped below 300$/ldt on the Indian sub-continent while the monsoon, Ramadan and increased duties for scrap vessel importation in Pakistan also had an impact.
Michael Hollmann
