Dry bulk carriers back in favour

With the recent Dry Bulk Index managing to remain above 2009-high, some owners are looking to speed up deliveries of their newbuildings.

Clarkson said that “we are now even starting to hear of some owners with ships due to deliver within the coming months, requesting the yards to bring these ships forward as much as possible. This is not a scenario we ever thought we would see at the beginning of the year, with the very large orderbook and the record low charter rates! We typically expected, even up to a few weeks ago, that scheduled deliveries would be rapidly reducing over the coming weeks, with owners typically taking the view that it is better to have their ship being a 2010 ship and thus having a greater residual value going forward” the research firm said.

Another interesting development that brings back memories prior to the financial and consequently shipping crisis is the emergence of inquiries for new building prices. According to Clarkson, prices are starting to stabilize with the general sentiment from the yards that this should not continue to chase prices down, whilst the chartering market is showing some level of firmness and new orders are being concluded at relatively stable levels compared to recent times.