Containerships leading the pack in terms of new building orders

Although new building orders have been on the downslide in the past few weeks, activity is still pretty healthy in most sectors, with container ships though stealing the show for the most part. According to the latest weekly report from Golden Destiny, “orders

continued to dwindle as the week week closed at similar last week’s levels with 19 new contractions posting a 5% week-on-week decline, with limited fresh activity in the main segments (bulk carriers, tankers/gas tankers and containers). The total invested capital estimated to be around $1,8 bn, with gas segment appearing the most overweight due to the new trend of last days towards LNG Floating Storage Regasification units. In terms of the reported number of transactions, the offshore segment has grasped the lion share of the total business (47%) as it seems that investors don’t loose their appetite for this type of investment. At a similar week in 2010, the newbuilding activity was standing almost at similar levels up by only 26% than current levels with 25 new contracts to have been reported worldwide and bulk carriers winning 37.5% share of the total volume of reported contracts. In the bulk carrier segment, Taiwanese owner U-Ming Marine Transport Corp has doubled the amount of capesize bulkers it has on order for two 206,000dwt vessels at Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding (SWS) to four units, as it prepares a 20-vessel expansion plan. The initial pair were said to have cost $60.5 mil each last summer. In the tanker market, a new more MR order came to light by Gotland AB in Sweden, placed in China’s Guandzhou Shipyards, for delivery in late 2012 at a total cost of region $32,5 mil.” said the Piraeus-based shipbroker.
In a separate newbuilding market analysis, Clarksons mentioned that “as we approach the mid point of the year the newbuilding market continues to be interestingly poised. Whilst we have not seen any new container orders placed this week, we have continued to see a healthy amount of market activity with reports of business being concluded in the Dry and Gas sectors.
The lack of container contracting this week is not however reflective of a diminishing interest in the market with continued talk of large orders being placed/discussed at the major Korean yards. The talk in the market thus far has been about the continued success of the major Korean shipyards, much of which has been brought about by this renewal in container ordering. This when combined with new offshore contracts and ordering in other niche sectors such as LNG has allowed many of the top yards to announce very healthy sales figures, with many of the yards well on their way to achieving their 2011 targets.
In comparison, China has thus far witnessed a far quieter year than it did in 2010. Whilst it has enjoyed some success with container ordering, this has been against the backdrop of the large scale success of the Korean yards as they aggressively pursued new orders in the early stages of the year. This, when combined with the drop off in demand in the Dry sector has left many of the yards facing an uphill struggle to fill their excess capacity and as such the second half of the year could well see the Chinese yards begin to move more aggressively to compete with Korea, as they look to secure their future production lines” said Clarksons.
In signs of further activity, Golden Destiny said that “in the gas tanker sector, Hyundai Heavy Industries, the world’s biggest shipbuilder, has sealed a USD 500 million order to build the world’s first two new LNG Floating Storage Regasification units (FSRU) for Hoegh of Norway. This contract also includes an option exercisable by Hoegh to order two additional same-class LNG FSRUs. The 170,000 cbm LNG FSRUs, measuring 294 meters in length and 46 meters in width, can store 70,000 tons of chilled natural gas. These two vessels are scheduled to be delivered by the second half of 2013 and the first half of 2014 respectively, and will operate for 40 years. An official from the shipbuilding giant said, “We see this order as the beginning of the global LNG FSRU order trend. Considering more than 10 LNG projects are underway in countries including Brazil and Indonesia, we expect more orders down the road.” Furthermore, Royal Dutch Shell plans to install a second LNG-FPSO at the Greater Sunrise field in the Pacific. In the container segment, rumours are suggesting that Daewoo yard is going to win 10 more 18,000 TEU containerships from AP Moller Maersk after signing a similar contract for 10 units in February” said Golden Destiny.
Nikos Roussanoglou, Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide