New Orders Container
Overall contracting activity in the new building market has been fairly low. The letters of[ds_preview] intent we reported have been signed by Evergreen and South Korean shipyard Samsung. In addition to the twelve 11,000TEU vessels which already have been ordered at Imabari during January, the contracts for eight further vessels at about 94,5mill. $ each have been signed during February.
In the smaller segments SITC declared its order of two 2,400TEU vessels at Yangzijiang which brings their total order to four firm vessels. Singapore-based Eastern Pacific has placed an order for four plus four optional ships at CSIC-Shanhaiguan. The 2,700TEU vessels are hawked to cost around 28.8mill.$ each.
Secondhand Sales Container
The market for further trading container vessels remained active during January and February with various transactions to be observed. Even though the supply of tonnage is not enough to satiate buying demand, this is contributing to firming asset values.
Again, it was noticeable that the ratio of vended feeder vessels was particularly high. MPC Container Ships acquired another three 2,800TEU boxships. The price is said to be 32,3mill.$. Furthermore, the fast growing containership owner has bought another 14 ships – including four 1,300TEU ships, four 1,500TEU ones and a pair of 1,800TEU, 2,500TEU and 2,800TEU vessels in each case.
In the bigger segments, only a couple of transactions were concluded. One transaction included the two 2004 built 5,576TEU vessels »March« and »Great«, which were sold for an aggregate price of 22mill. $ to Technomar.
Demolition Sales
The situation at the recycling market for container vessels remains unchanged – only a few vessels were sold for scrap. Nevertheless, an increment of recycling sales could be observed. The recent increment might be attributed to relatively strong scrap prices and the firming world market price for iron ore. During the last couple of days, prices around 77$ per ton were achieved.
Jan Göldner
