Car carriers have seen huge rises in value in record markets, according to VesselsValue.

The valuation platform's head of ferry, ro-ro and vehicle carriers, Dan Nash, calculates that some older ships have more than doubled in price over the last year.

“2022 was a record year for rates and values from a genuine super-cycle,” he said.

A standard 10-year-old, 6,500-ceu pure car truck carrier (PCTC) increased in value by a whopping 84% to $84m, Nash added.

This was on top of a 50% rise in 2021.

Demand outstripped supply due to strong electric vehicle trade growth from China and tightening port congestion in Europe.

Over the course of the year, 15-year-old assets more than doubled in value, VesselsValue data showed.

The biggest sale and purchase deals revolved around these 10 to 15-year-old mid-sized ships built in China.

The 4,900-ceu Hoegh Maputo and Hoegh Singapore (both built 2011) were snapped up for $39.5m each by Greece’s Neptune Lines in February.

VesselsValue had assessed the ships as worth $33.15m each the day before sale.

“Seen as high prices at the time, they have since proved to be shrewd acquisitions,” Nash argued.

Ofer in S&P action

In September, XT Shipping acquired the 4,902-ceu Lake Superior (built 2007) for $50m from Idan Ofer’s Eastern Pacific Shipping (EPS).

The VesselsValue assessment was $46.63m. EPS principal Ofer is a major shareholder of Israel's XT.

Nash said the ship was an older, less efficient unit compared to the Hoegh pair, trading on a lower CII rating.

“However, buyers were prepared to pay a $10.5m premium to secure this asset just seven months after the Hoegh deals,” he added.

The Lake Superior is worth $57.8m now.

And it is not only car carriers whose value has shot through the roof.

Con-ro prices rocketed due to a red-hot charter market.

Large assets with the capacity to carry more than 2,000 cars, in addition to container capacity, firmed by 25% in 2022.

“The market realised how valuable deepsea con-ros had become when Jolly Diamante was sold by MSC to Liberty Global Logistics for $78m in June,” Nash said.

He called this was an “impressive” price for an 11-year-old ship, comfortably eclipsing the $70m order price paid by Ignazio Messina to DSME in December 2009.