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Capesize fleet increaes by just 1 vessel during last 12 months, in positive sign for Dry Bulk Shipping Market

After a rather tumultuous period, the shipping industry and more particular the dry bulk market has started to adjust to the new realities of global economy, trade and demand. “An industry trying to re find itself” has been the title phrase that best describes shipping during the past 12 months, said Allied Shipbroking in its latest weekly report. “After an extraordinary decade were the industry gained not only from fast paced world economic growth but also from the opening of trade and bolstering of largely dispersed supply chains, international trade volumes managed to grow at an average rate which was twice as fast as that of the world economy. This self-feeding super cycle caused great escalation in the movement of commodi-ties as well as finished products, driving demand for shipping to new highs”, Allied noted.

As George Lazaridis, Head of Market Reseach & Asset Valuations pointed out, “this was a cycle in the market which like any other was not meant to last forever and as we moved towards the end of 2011 it was already starting to become evident that growth in glob-al trade volumes was set to fall to levels far below the long-term average of 5% a year. During 2015 global trade volumes grew by 2.58% year-on-year, while the average rate seen since 2012 has been 2.49% and has rarely even reached the 5% figure”.

Lazaridis notes that “all this has meant that shipping has had to restructure itself in order to reflect and follow this new trend. Shipping is driven by demand and must always follow the prevailing trends seen in global trade. With most in the industry being used to the excessive growth rates witnessed in the 2003-2007 period, it has proven that the rehabilitation period will last much longer then what we had seen during previous cycles. It is almost as if many watch in disbelief that the high paced growth years are over and will not be seen again soon. A good example of this had been the large scale ordering that was undertaken during 2010 as well as the more recent ordering spree of 2013-2014″.

This however have started to change. As Allied’s analyst pointed out, “new order contracting has all but vanished during 2015 and scrapping along with orderbook cancellations and delays has helped dampen fleet growth to levels that better match that of global trade. All this has been a bigger issue for the dry bulk market which has accounted for ever less percentage in the growth of world trade (notable that crude oil and oil products have accounted for some of the largest gains during the past 12 months) but even saw the well placed actions undertaken by the market as a whole has started to show signs of bearing fruits”.

Allied said that “Capesize freight rates this week noted one of their fastest paced increases after a seasonal influx of cargoes was matched by few open vessels leaving traders to scramble in order to cover their requirements. With the Capesize Fleet having witnessed a 0.07% year-on-year increase (essentially only 1 more vessel than what we were seeing last September) the market has already start to rebalance better matching the average requirements put out during the seasonal cycles of the year”.

Lazaridis said that “so, there you have it, there is a way out of the gloomy market downturn but it involves a redefining of how we view the markets rather than waiting for another global trade super cycle. The dangers are now more placed in the hands of the industry itself and its ability to revert from “shooting itself in the foot” so to speak. With the shipbuilding industry having also been forced into a corner these past months, progress has been made in preventing further ordering sprees such as those mentioned earlier as ship-building capacity has also decreased somewhat. If we are able to keep fleet growth rate under cap and closer to what global trade growth dictates, then we might just be closer to more promising freight market levels steering well away from the levels we had been seeing during the first half of 2015:, he concluded.

source: http://coalspot.com