Shipbrokers have tallied secondhand sale-and-purchase deals worth $22.5bn so far this year as tankers and bulkers prove particularly interesting to buyers.
Clarksons Research tallies 337 oil carriers changing hands in 2022 and Allied Shipping Research puts the figure at 346.
The company said firm enquiry for these ships continues to be seen in the market, although the week ending 15 July was quieter in terms of deals completed.
Owners have been adjusting their fleet capacity to take advantage of a recovery in tanker rates this year.
Firmer trends have been seen across the crude carrier market amid increased activity, with average VLCC spot earnings up 68% week-on-week to $7,715 per day, the highest level since early April, Clarksons said.
In the product tanker sector, MR spot earnings eased back slightly by 7% to a still very strong $37,414 per day, amid pressure in the US Gulf.
Allied logs 1,054 vessels of all types being sold for a combined $22.5bn to 10 July.
Bulkers constitute the biggest total, with buyers taking 413 ships.
Of these, supramaxes came out on top with 123 units of 6.7m dwt changing hands, followed by handysizes on 118 and panamaxes on 113.
The average age of the dry cargo vessels sold was 12 years and the total value came in at a touch under $8bn.
Allied’s 346 recorded tanker deals were worth $6.7bn.
MRs in high demand
The buoyant MR sector proved the most attractive to buyers, with 140 sales worth $2.4bn completed, the highest number of any single ship type and 40% of the tanker total.
In deadweight terms, resurgent aframaxes topped the list at 6.43m dwt.
The 68 ships sold were worth $1.1bn.
Buyers added 45 VLCCs to their fleets in the period through transactions worth $1.9bn.
Container ships were still popular with buyers as record rates continued to be seen.
Allied charts a total of 129 vessels sold for $6.7bn.
Then there were 49 gas carrier deals worth $1.5bn and 40 general cargo ship acquisitions for a total of $399m.
Beating 2021?
Allied also noted 10 sales of ro-ros or ropaxes for $193m and 69 other vessels changing hands for $1.2bn.
Overall, the total capacity moving between owners was 68.98m dwt at an average age of 13 years.
Greek and Chinese owners dominated, buying 160 and 124 vessels respectively.
The top seller was Greece on 125, Japan with 103 and China on 97.
These figures show S&P deals on track to beat the total last year of 1,901 ships of 130.56m dwt and $31.7bn in value.
2021 was a busy year, well ahead of 2020, when the total was 1,177 vessels worth $16.3bn.
Allied’s figures for 2017, 2018 and 2019 also show 2022 will be much stronger.
The highest number of deals in those years was 1,584, for a total of $20.4bn.
