November proved another barren month for tanker newbuildings, the second such month in 2021 when no new orders were placed, according to a top shipbroker.
Affinity (Shipping) said this underscored the current bearish sentiment among buyers amid a "gloomy outlook for the market and an environment of weak freight earnings".
"This is a stark contrast from what was seen during the same period last year, when the level of ordering ramped up exponentially on the back of pent-up demand due to Covid-19 and optimism for 2021," the shipbroker said.
August was the first month since April 2016 that not a single tanker newbuilding order was registered.
During the first 11 months of 2021, orders placed for tankers reached 177 units of a combined 55m dwt, which is 16.4% higher compared with the same period last year in number terms.
As of the end of November, the tanker orderbook stood at 395 ships with a total of 49.3m dwt, representing 7.3% of the active tanker fleet in tonnage terms.
The situation was similar in the LPG carrier market with no newbuilding orders reported during November, according to Affinity (Shipping).
The number of LPG carrier orders in the year to date still stands 63% higher than the previous year.
Affinity (Shipping)
"Contracting activity in the segment has been on a downward trend since the multi-year high record of contracting levels made from March to May of this year, which averaged 18 orders per month," the shipbroker said.
"Despite the slowdown in LPG ordering activity in recent months, the overall number of LPG carrier orders made in the year to date still stands 63% higher than the previous year level.
"The LPG orderbook numbers 155 ships with a total of 8.6m cbm, bringing the orderbook as a percentage of the fleet in cbm terms to 22.2%.”
Affinity (Shipping) said VLGCs accounted for most of the overall LPG orderbook, both in terms of units and cargo capacity, with a total of 79 ships on order, totalling 7m cbm, representing 51% in terms of units and 81% in cbm terms.
Containership contracting activity in November, like that of October, was "very subdued" compared with levels throughout the rest of 2021, the shipbroker said.
"Only 18 vessels were ordered last month, matching October’s total tally, except that, last month, all 18 vessels were in the 1,000 to 2,000-teu band," Affinity (Shipping) said.
"In the year to date, 489 vessels have been ordered, which is a 244% increase on 2020’s total. In teu terms, 3.67m-teu has been ordered so far this year, which is an increase of 199% on the year."
The orderbook as a percentage of the live fleet in teu terms was 23.4% at the end of November, slightly down from the previous month’s 23.6%.
Bulker orders continued to decline last month with just 11 placed. Of these, nine were kamsarmaxes while the remaining two units were for capesizes.
"In spite of the current volatile freight market, which goes some way to explaining the softening of bulker contracting activity, a generally robust outlook of the dry market may likely prompt levels of ordering to grow steadily during the year-end," Affinity (Shipping) said.
The current bulker orderbook, which consists of 689 ships with a total of 63.1m dwt, accounts for about 7% of the trading fleet in dwt terms.
