Ship Recycling Markets Slightly Busier

The week concluded surprisingly for sub-continent ship recycling nations which were busier (from an LDT perspective) than recent weeks, reports cash buyer GMS.

“This left local recyclers scrambling to get their respective shares of the odd unit in, and that too at ever-competitive rates. As such, the dearth of vessels currently available for a recycling sale will certainly ensure that any mis-directed dreams of discounted deals at this juncture of the year, are likely to remain just that…i.e. dreams.”

Low(er) quality, laid up, small(er) LDT, Chinese built tonnage that has been consistently proposed for recycling, is frustrating the ship recycling community into offering lower and lower numbers on such units – several reportedly seeing even below USD 500/ton, reports GMS.

A small, yet growing, number of yards could be entering a vegetative state sooner rather than later. “And why not? With so little activity to keep global recyclers even interested (let alone busy), it’s certainly worth a try given that it has helped Aliaga Recyclers.”

Overall, conditions in India remain bleak as steel plate volatility resumes, the Indian Rupee starts to struggle, and a discernable election anxiety (in case the Modi party fails to win another term) has been increasingly permeating of late. Bangladeshi and Pakistani markets continue to fare comparatively better, though many units are likely to be ignored as most end buyers are now preferring to wait and watch the market, rather than fill their plots with subpar tonnage.