2018 premieres with vivid newbuilding activity

Appetite for more newbuildings seems to be quite big during the first days of 2018. Allied Shipbroking said in its latest weekly report that despite having only just returned from the Christmas holiday period activity in the newbuilding market seemed to be holding firm with several deals seemingly signed during the festive retreats. The main sector driving activity of recent is still the dry bulk market with increased earnings driving buying interest and pushing for further units being ordered. The main activity seems to still be focused on the larger Capesize and Panamax segments a trend that we have been noting since the summer of 2017. In terms of the rest of the orders it seems to be more a case of mix and match with most of the m being more specialized units likely being placed to fulfill some sort of trading requirements by the buyers that placed them respectively. Overall expectation is for a much more heated market in terms of activity here, with the total volume expected to likely surpass anything we have seen during the past 2 to 3 years.

Meanwhile in the S&P market, Allied added that on the dry bulk side things were relatively slow especially when compared to the average levels we noted during the past year. This is not necessarily indicative of the buying sentiment being noted but rather that most seemed to have retreated taking any action during the final weeks of the year likely choosing to wait and see how the New Year freight market will go. On the tanker side activity continued to remain slow and pretty much inline with what we have been seen during the past 12 months. Given the poor earnings and the push back by most sellers things have become a bit more tricky here and we may well be seeing a widening gap between buyers and sellers ideas something that would surely hamper things further.