Subcontinental shipbreaking market remained bullish with scrapped vessel prices settling at around $350/ldt in the region. Pakistani cash buyers have started losing ground to Bangladeshi recyclers who upped their bids last week to match up to the competition.
India
Indian ship recyclers secured impressive HKC tonnages at decent prices, last week amid recovering steel demand in the country. In Alang, demand for ship scrap plates is stable, but prices remained flat.
Yards have ample tonnage and workforce to increase production in the near terms. This could boost vessel trades in the next few weeks. However, the possibility of a new round of pandemic restriction, including those on ship deliveries and crew transhas led to some uncertainty in the market.
Taiwanese-owned Ever Decent with 21,731ldt traded at $345/ldt on ‘as is’ Hong Kong delivery basis for HKC green recycling. Indian buyers secured three tankers auctioned by Petrobras on an en bloc basis. The deal included PIRAI 13,609/ldt, PIRAJUI 13,561/ldt and PEDREIRAS 14,228/ldt at approximately $219.50/ldt (total $9.08mn) on ‘as is’ Rio. These vessels will be delivered in gas-free suitable for man entry condition.
Bangladesh
Bangladeshi recyclers competed actively with their Pakistani counterparts. They, however, limited their tonnage bookings to take advantage of a price correction in the absence of active buying from Pakistan. Shipyards in Gadani are nearly full.
Bangladesh is expected to aggressively buy vessels in the next few weeks as yards are clearing out their inventories of VLOC and Capesize bulker bought in the first half of 2020.
Shipbreaker in Chattogram secured a container vessel Yokohama of 4,768ldt from Korean shipper Sinokor for $385/ldt last week and a Chinese-owned 2003-built MPP Yu Rong of 11,838ldt at an impressive $378/ldt.
Domestic ship plates prices in Bangladesh stabilised at BDT36,000-36,500/mt last week amid high ferrous scrap imports.
Pakistan
Recyclers in Gadani are stuffed with inventories that can easily last for two months. Scrapped vessel tonnages of over 400,000mt have arrived at Gadani since yards opened for business in June. Market participants have accepted bids of $350-$380/ldt from Pakistani and Bangladeshi buyers for non-HKC vessels and prices have stabilized around this level. Bids from yards in Gadani have started to cool-off last week.
Three general cargo vessels; Elit of 4,360ldt sold at $355/ldt, in the second attempt; Nazlican 3,898ldt at $353/ldt and Transfair 2,990ldt were bought by Pakistani buyers last week. Transocean and Transfair were sold at $351/ldt on an en bloc basis.
Turkey
in Turkey, no vessel deals or arrivals were reported in the week. Local HMS prices were $20/mt lower than imported, while the Turkish lira traded at 7.5, a new all-time low.