Recycling Quiet After Eid Holidays

With many sub-continent yards still closed after Eid holidays, mixed in with the ongoing monsoon season, cash buyer GMS reports a lack of tonnage and an inactive week in the ship recycling market.

Most of the year has been quiet for recycling sales, and prices being quoted are so unworkably below market expectations at present, a bounce back anytime soon seems unlikely, says GMS.

“As such, before proposing any further candidates, most cash buyers and (especially) ship owners have decided to continue to wait and watch the markets for greater stability and a better handle on pricing.”

Meanwhile, after a couple of volatile quarters, fundamentals presently seem to have leveled out across the board in the Indian sub-continent and even Turkish recycling markets, where steel plate prices and currencies (except in Pakistan) seem to have found a brief plateau of peace. Additionally, an ongoing lack of workable Letters of Credit and financing in Pakistan and even in a post-budget Bangladesh is driving prices and demand down.

Overall, amidst the ongoing crippling lack of tonnage, GMS says that those owners with units closer to recycling age have been seriously reconsidering placing their vessels back into service and are invariably adding to the growing lack of tonnage.

For week 27 of 2023, GMS demo rankings / pricing for the week are as below.