Muted fleet growth and a low orderbook have helped buoy segments across shipping, but nobody has had it better than offshore.
According to figures from Clarksons, the global fleet grew 21% from 2019 with the oil tanker fleet growing 2.9% and bulkers 3.4%.
But the numbers of anchor-handling tug supply vessels and platform supply vessels have both fallen by 4% over the same period and subsea support fleet growth was flat, making for a big impact, according to Clarksons analyst Calum Kennedy.
“While shipping has seen moderate overall supply expansion across the last half-decade, fleets have been shrinking in key offshore sectors,” he said.
“As demand has improved, these supply constraints have clearly had a potent market impact.”
Overall, the offshore vessel sector has grown just 1.7%, although Clarksons includes rigs in their count.
Kennedy said all the growth has come since 2022, with the overall offshore vessel fleet shrinking in the preceding three-and-a-half years, beginning in mid-2018.
Subsea support vessels have the added benefit of growth in offshore wind, where wind farm developers compete with oil and gas producers for vessels.
However, some of that has driven fleet growth, with cable laying vessels adding 112 ships or 24% of the market, Kennedy said.
The rosy picture for the offshore sector has brought big names into the sector and fuelled mergers-and-acquisitions activity.
Greek tycoon Evangelos Marinakis reportedly ordered four PSVs, with an option for four more, at Fujian Mawei Shipbuilding through his Capital Offshore company and potentially running to $320m for all eight.
John Fredriksen’s SeaTankers group has been linked to an order for four offshore construction vessels at China’s Wuchang Shipbuilding Industry Group.
And in July, DOF Group splashed $1.1bn to buy Maersk Supply Services, with DOF chief executive Mons Aase telling TradeWinds that offshore is “in the beginning of an up cycle”.
