Both the recycling markets and the cash buyers’ bottom lines continued to bleed, thanks to the purchasing exuberance displayed in the previous months, GMS said in its weekly report.
Deliveries were suffering, LC’s were not opened and re-negotiations were said to be common place for the most obscure reasons.
At the very least it will take several more weeks for prices to reach the bottom and to find a level ground. Each new vessel introduced into the market was greeted with lower prices quoted.
As for the Pakistan situation, each new meeting between the government and the shipbreakers’ association (PBSA) has thus far yielded no results on the tanker issue, despite the fact that only one remaining signature is required to lift the ban, GMS said.
India remained perhaps the most stable of the Indian sub-continent markets and as a result, managed to secure a large LPG carrier and another reefer from the Baltic fleet last week.
Meanwhile, large amounts of wet tonnage continued to arrive along the Bangladesh waterfront. It is expected to take some time before these ongoing deliveries are absorbed and consumed and demand returns to acceptable levels, GMS concluded.
The only sale reported by brokers recently concerned the 2000-built LR1 ‘Yves Jacob’ said to have been sold to Bangladesh interests for $440 per ldt.