It may be time for sale-and-purchase-savvy shipowners to focus on bulkers following steep rises in boxship prices.

German shipbroker Hanse Bereederung has warned that containership asset values could plunge just as steeply as they have soared if booming markets take a turn for the worse.

Alex Karydis, director of chartering and sale and purchase at Hanse, told TradeWinds: "Is it a good time now to invest? Yes, but it depends on what deal.

"If you can find a modern, 1,000-teu ship at a good price, then you can easily fix it for three years."

Owners of containerships have been more than doubling their money on sales, compared to where prices were last July.

Mediterranean Shipping Co (MSC) paid a reported $97.5m each for two Capital Product Partners-owned 9,000-teu ships earlier in April, higher than the original newbuilding prices, Hanse said.

Karydis added that good deals are still out there, particularly if bankrupt fleets are being sold by banks.

Time running out?

"It is very easy to secure long-term contracts for high rates so I guess it still makes sense, but I don't think for long," he said.

"You will pay perhaps a high price but, in this market environment, maybe you will not lose. Charterers are fixing ships with a two to three-year horizon, so if you buy a ship and give it to them, they will kiss your hand."

But he warned there has to be a point when the market stabilises.

"It cannot go up incessantly," the broker said.

Hanse believes demand is strong in the dry cargo sector.

"Perhaps now it's time to go for the bulk carriers," Karydis said.

Containership freight and charter markets have been hot. Photo: Pixabay

The brokerage said that when the boxship market picked up in the summer, there was no immediate spike in vessel prices. Instead, there was a gradual rise.

Then, when the market improvements looked to be here to stay, prices rose more quickly.

Karydis said ships nobody was touching before suddenly became hot property when smaller owners saw the likes of AP Moller-Maersk and MSC "slowly, timidly" starting to fix for 24 to 36 months at good money.

"They thought, 'there you go, maybe now we have a chance'," he said. "The ones who bought three or four years ago cheap at auction or from the banks, they are making good money."

More ships to hit the market

Karydis argues that some owners are still holding vessels back from the S&P market to see prices go higher.

But he warned: "Asset prices will fall in the same manner as they are rising now."

This will occur when players see the first couple of fixtures below last-done levels.

"They may say, 'the party's done, let's get rid of the assets'," he said.

Michael Zankl, managing director of S&P and chartering at Hanse, told TradeWinds that the usual mistake made in the past was when buyers acquired ships for too much money.

"You have to be very careful," he said. "It will only last for a short while. Prices are just getting too high."