The markets seem mixed at the moment

MONTHLY SALE AND PURCHASE REPORT  1/4/15

 By Harry Vafias

We are approaching easter fast and the markets seem mixed at the moment… the dry has been very volatile recently with ups and downs and thus buyers don’t know if it’s a good time to move or wait for even softer prices, on the tankers the recent surge in the crude freight rates has given optimism to sellers but  people have been quite skeptical on the products side despite their good performance freight wise..

Lets start from the new orders front. Mitsui OSK agreed with Samsung to build four 20,100 teu mega containers costing $155 mill each however the news of the month are that ORIX ordered 21 handies in tsuneishi, oshima, onomichi and imabari for $500 mill abt $23 mill each!!! Maesrk ordered seven 3700 teu ice class containers in cosco zhoushan for $49 mill apiece.

Thenamaris has been active lately ordering two afras in sumitomo for abt $54 mill each, exercising options for two LR2’s in sungdong costing $56 mill each and booking a single suezmax in Hyundai. Latsis ordered two large gas carriers at Hyundai 60,000 cbm each for long term charter to an oil co while alpha tankers went to the same yard for two suezmaxes including an optional ship! Arcadia also went to the same yard for suezmaxes bring their orderbook to 6 ships and AMPTC went for coated suezmaxes once more at Hyundai. Transpetrol ordered two aframaxes also at Hyundai for $55 mill each while Meiji exercised an option for another VLCC at JMU costing $96 mill.

Lets continue with the 2^nd hand dry sales. Chartwold paid $16,5 mill for the ‘torm trader’ 82,000 dwt built 10 japan while eurobulk paid $12 mill for the ‘million trader I’ 75,000 dwt built 06 japan. The ‘sunny ace’ 56,000 dwt built 05 japan 4x31 got $11,5 mill while the ‘cmb biwa’ 53,000 dwt built 02 japan got $9,4 mill.  The ‘Navision alliance’ 28,000 dwt built 95 japan 4x30 got $3,4 mill, the ‘ramada queen’ 46,000 dwt built 05 japan 4x30 got $8,6 from primal and the ‘abyo four’ 172,000 dwt built 99 romania got scrap levels from karadeniz! The ‘lopi Z’ 72,000 dwt built 98 japan got $6 mill, the ‘cs rainbow’ 55,000 dwt built 06 japan 4x30 fetched $11,2 mill from blue seas and the ‘global wind’ 53,000 dwt built 03 japan 4x30 got $8,8 mill. scorpio bulkers sold two ships namely the ‘SBI merengue’ 81,000 dwt built 16 korea for $27 mill and the ‘SBI thalia’ 63,000 dwt built 15 china 4x30 for $24,5 mill to blue seas.

Lets end our report with the hot sizzling tanker sales. The ‘HC dalia / HC elida’ both 37,000 dwt built 01 korea epoxy got $12 mill each from different buyers while two MR resales ex Hyundai mipo del within summer 15 got $36,5 mill each from tankerska plovidba. The ‘gold express’ 47,000 dwt built 09 japan epoxy got $23 mill while the ‘sapphire express’ 47,000 dwt built 09 japan epoxy fot $21,5 mill. The ‘universal prime’ 300,000 dwt built 97 korea got $31 mill while the ‘takasuzu’ 280,000 dwt built 2000 japan got $27 mill with SS due. Maersk paid $22,5 mill for the ‘giacinta’ 50,000 dwt built 2010 china epoxy, the ‘E ships sama’ 45,000 dwt built 05 japan epoxy got $15 mill with SS due and the ‘simoa’ 41,000 dwt built 04 korea epoxy got $15 mill. The ‘future prosperity’ 48,000 dwt built 2010 japan epoxy got $23 mill while the ‘sea glory’ 47,000 dwt built 03 japan got $12,5 mill. CCNI paid $73 mill to acquire enbloc the ‘nord stability / nord strong’ both 50,000 dwt built 13 korea. Onassis bought the two ore/oil carriers ‘selma B / Camilla T’ 320,000 dwt built 10/11 respectivelly korea. Last but not least Economou bought 4 suezmaxes from his own listed company dryships for $245 mill (all built 2011-2013) and has also an option to buy 6 more aframaxes from dryships too for $291 mill (also all built 2011-2013)!!!