Bulker Demand Prevalent in Newbuilding Market

The newbuilding market saw four orders for 208k Newcastlemax at New Yangzijiang placed last week by German shipping company H.Vogemann, Clarkson reported in its Hellas Weekly S&P Bulletin.

The first two vessels are slated for delivery in the end of 2016, with the remaining two scheduled for the first half of 2017.

The order is said to be worth up to USD 56.5 mill per vessel.

According to Clarkson, it is understood that these contracts replace four units originally contracted at Jiangsu Eastern that have been cancelled.

A yet unconfirmed Hong Kong based buyer has placed an order at Shin Kurushima for two firm 60,000dwt Ultramax with delivery in 2017.

Nord Reederei also contracted two firm 37,000dwt Handysize for Zhejiang Ouhua, planned for delivery in 2016.

Frontline confirmed an order for two firm (plus one option) 320,000dwt VLCCs at JMU worth around USD 97 mill. Delivery of the firm vessels is expected by the end of 2016.

Clarkson said that clients of Maran are reported to have swapped two orders for VLCCs at DSME into 174k LNG carriers due to deliver in 2018.

The contract is said to include two further options.

Mitsui OSK and Tokyo LNG have contracted a second 165,000cbm LNG carrier at JMU, with both vessels due for delivery in 2017.

Source: Clarkson