But even with scrapping showing a healthy rise it warns owners need to hold on to their life jackets for now.
Ben Trimmel of Clarksons Research said in a report: “Bulk carrier earnings in the first half of 2015 are on course to hit the lowest half-yearly level so far this century, due to limited trade growth and chronic oversupply in the fleet.
“While record-breaking scrapping is helping to stem some of the oversupply, the dry bulk market requires a sustained period of ‘maintenance’ on both the supply and demand side to steady the ship.”
In the first five months of 2015 bulker rates averaged just $6,364 per day. This is the lowest since 1999, “making even the period immediately after the 2008 crash look like the good old days,” he says.
Trimmel counts just 35 new bulkers contracted between January and May 2015, a 97% fall and the lowest since 1999.
At the same time scrapping reached 17.3 million dwt in the first five months of this year, 7% more than was packed off to the breakers in the whole of 2014.
Capesizes of 10.3 million dwt were scrapped in the period, more than double the figure for 2014.
“Nearing the halfway mark in 2015, sentiment in the dry bulk market appears worse than it has in recent years,” Trimmel said.
“Looking forward, even with a surge in demolition and a dearth in contracting, the outlook for the dry bulk carrier market balance remains challenging.
“An upturn in dry bulk trade (especially Chinese imports), coupled with a sustained reduction in fleet growth would likely help to give the dry bulk market some buoyancy, but for the time being hold on to your life jackets.”
