Chattogram-based PHP Ship Breaking & Recycling Industries has made history in the Bangladesh recycling industry by taking delivery of a multipurpose general cargo ship from Japanese shipping giant NYK.
The Mohammed Zahirul Islam-led recycling facility will recycle the 9,400-dwt Kamo (built 1998) in line with the Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships (Hong Kong Convention), with the process supervised by a specialist team from NYK.
TradeWinds reported the Kamo, a vessel owned by NYK Bulk & Projects Carriers-affiliated Shiba Shipping, as having been sold for recycling in early February. It was beached at PHP Ship Breaking on 9 March.
The ship is being touted as the first ship sold by NYK for recycling in Bangladesh, a move Islam said would encourage safer and greener ship recycling practices in the South Asian country.
PHP Ship Breaking was the first certified Hong Kong Convention-compliant recycling facility in Bangladesh and, while it begins the process of recycling the Kamo, other recyclers in India and Bangladesh have been busy buying fresh tonnage.
The past week has seen South Korean shipowner Sinokor Merchant Marine sell another laid-up steam turbine LNG carrier for demolition in India or Bangladesh.
Brokers report that the 127,580-cbm Grace Energy (built 1989) has been sold to cash buyers for onward recycling at $684 per ldt, or $20.8m. The ship has been laid up off Linggi Port in Malaysia since January, according to VesselsValue data.
The Grace Energy is the second LNG carrier that Sinokor has dispatched for recycling over the past two weeks. In early March, the company sold the 126,911-cbm Adriatic Energy (built 1983) to cash buyers for recycling, also in India or Bangladesh.
Disposals by segment
Bulker disposals over the past week included Taiwan’s Sincere Navigation’s sale of a capesize, the 176,000-dwt Huang Shan (built 2003), for green recycling on an “as is” China basis for $614 per ldt, or $14.7m. The high price is said to reflect a significant amount of bunkers remaining on board.
Recyclers in Bangladesh picked up New Century Shipping of Hong Kong’s 15,900-dwt bulk carrier Yu Hai Xing (built 1995) for $585 per ldt, or $2.9m.
On the tanker front, Deed General Trading of Dubai sold the 45,400-dwt product tanker Augusta II (built 1991) to Alang-based recyclers for an undisclosed sum.
The Augusta II was the only ship owned by Deed General Trading, which acquired it as Ocean Lady V from Tyron Shipping of the Marshall Islands in September 2022.
Its time with Tyron was even shorter. That company bought the product tanker as Pagas in August 2022. S&P Global data indicates the ship passed through the hands of several Iranian tanker operators before Tyron appeared on the scene.
High expectations
The past week also saw the long-anticipated rush to recycle container ships fail to materialise, with two feeder-size boxships owned by Dubai-based Transworld Group and Levant Marine Group of Greece being the only reported sales in the liner sector.
Transworld is said to have sold the 1,725-teu SSL Kutch (built 1998) to Bangladesh at $616 per ldt, or $5.1m.
Levant Marine is reported to have sold the 603-teu Levant Horizon (built 1997) to India at $585 per ldt, or a few dollars short of $2m. The ship arrived off Alang on Saturday.
Rounding up the week’s recycling deals were a pair of 5,506-bhp anchor-handlers by Qatar’s Halul Offshore that were sold to India for Hong Kong Convention-compliant recycling.
The Halul 20 (built 2002) and Halul 21 (built 2003) were sold for $675 per ldt, or $896,000 per ship.
The uptick in vessel acquisitions came despite price offerings out of India and Bangladesh remaining relatively stable.
Cash buyer Best Oasis said in its latest market report that most recyclers in India remain hesitant to buy large vessels, which they deem to be time-consuming to recycle, unless these can be procured at a lower level.
Star Asia Shipbrokers added that the expectation that “there will be a tsunami of ships, especially in the container segment” after the first quarter, has dampened the previous enthusiastic outlook held by Indian recyclers.
This left Bangladesh to dominate the ship recycling market, ready to grab any ship at significantly higher prices surpassing the $600-per-ldt level, Star Asia said.
Meanwhile, Pakistan remained completely absent on the buying front.
