In a separate report this week, Allied Shipbroking added that “despite the strong price on offer right in the ship recycling market, we have seen a real shortage in demolition candidates of late over the last few weeks due to the upward trend noted in freight rates across most sectors. As far as the Indian Sub-Continent goes, India’s domestic steel demand is constantly on the rise, resulting in local breakers offering highly competitive prices in their efforts to secure as much tonnage as they can.
Initially, Pakistani breakers seemed to be following in hot pursuit, closing in on with what was on offer from India, though as it seems still lacking the support from their local market fundamentals to be able to clinch the top leaderboard position at this point. Bangladesh seems to be hold back at this point, trailing behind the rest of the main Indian Sub-Continent destinations, as the Ramadan festivities seem to have further staled the market at this point (in contrast to what we were seeing in Pakistan)”.
GMS , the world’s leading cash buyer of ships added that “India finally leads the way on pricing this week, as all of markets i.e. Pakistani, Bangladeshi and even the Turkish markets work their way towards Eid holidays and the end of the Holy month of Ramadan. In fact, several markets are likely to be closed anywhere from a couple of days (as in the sub-continent) with the Turkish market celebrating until Thursday. Overall, it has been a far softer week in terms of sentiment in Pakistan, whilst Bangladesh has remained largely absent from the buying for another week. The Pakistani Rupee suffered some minor depreciations by about 2% or so, once again giving Gadani Recyclers another excuse to try and talk down the domestic market and even walk away from some high-priced deals that have reportedly failed to perform.
As such, it is a market worth avoiding at present for this very reason. Bangladesh has also suffered some currency depreciations of their own leaving them even further away from the rest, subsequently ending the week as the most distant sub-continent recycling destination. Indian steel prices suffered some noteworthy falls during the initial course of the week, before recovering by the time the week ended, as Alang too enters the holiday period. Yet, Indian Buyers have managed to maintain pole position and continue to secure much of the dwindling array of available vessels. Finally, as Tanker, Container and even Bulker rates continue to impress as Monsoon lingers over the Indian sub-continent horizon, it is increasingly clear that the markets are going to see far fewer vessels for sale in the second quarter of the year”, GMS concluded.
