According to a comprehensive report from Worldway: Over the past few weeks, several shipbrokers have released their new shipbuilding statistics for the first half of the year. However, due to differences in calculation and classification methods, there are significant discrepancies between these figures. Nevertheless, data from all brokers indicate that Greek shipowners remain one of the main drivers of the investment boom in the new shipbuilding market.
The report from Greek broker GoldenDestiny states that in the first half of 2014, Greek shipowners ordered a total of 206 new vessels, with a total capacity of approximately 21.5 million deadweight tons (DWT). Excluding orders where contract values were not disclosed, the total investment cost for these new vessels is approximately 8 billion USD.
The aforementioned price is similar to data from Greek broker GeorgeMoundreas&Co. Statistics from GeorgeMoundreas&Co show that in the first half of the year, Greek shipowners invested 8.6 billion USD in shipbuilding. However, in this broker's statistics, the number of new vessels ordered by Greek shipowners was 131, with a total capacity of 13.5 million DWT.
GeorgeMoundreas&Co's order volume statistics are very close to those of TradeWinds. According to TradeWinds, Greek shipowners ordered a total of 130 new vessels in the first half of the year, with a total capacity of approximately 17.5 million DWT. However, the total investment cost for these new vessels was only 5 billion USD, as the specific prices for a large number of orders were not disclosed.
Intermodal's statistics are more conservative and cautious. Intermodal points out in its report that as of the end of June, Greek shipowners had ordered a total of 89 new vessels, with a total capacity of approximately 9.4 million DWT and a total investment cost of approximately 2.9 billion USD. Clearly, some research institutions include all announced orders in their statistics, while others only count confirmed orders.
Despite the significant differences in the final results, it is undeniable that Greek shipowners' new vessel orders still account for a large portion of the global total. GoldenDestiny states that global shipowners ordered a total of 1,456 new vessels in the first half of the year, with a total capacity of approximately 89 million DWT, of which Greek shipowners' orders accounted for 14% of the total number of vessels and 24% of the total capacity.
In addition, according to GoldenDestiny data, the number of new vessels ordered by Greek shipowners in the first 6 months increased by 61%, while the growth rate for global shipowners was only 26%; the capacity of new vessels ordered by Greek shipowners increased by 74%, compared to 34% for global shipowners. In the first half of the year, Greek shipowners ordered a total of 102 bulk carriers, 89 of which were built by Chinese shipyards; there were a total of 59 tanker orders, 50 of which were built by South Korean shipyards.
There are many reasons for the continued prosperity of the new shipbuilding market. One important reason is the currently relatively low cost of new ship construction. However, GoldenDestiny senior consultant GeorgeBanos points out that new ship construction costs have increased by 10% to 15% or even more compared to a year ago, especially for new ships from Japanese shipyards. He believes that shipowners still trust that freight demand is continuously growing.
The differences in statistics from shipbrokers are mainly reflected in the bulk carrier sector. There are a large number of orders in this ship type that have been reported but not yet confirmed. In contrast, the differences in liquefied gas carrier orders are not significant; both LPG and LNG carrier orders are between 16 and 20 vessels; container ship orders are between 16 and 25 vessels; tanker orders are relatively close, with most data showing around 45 vessels.
Worldway Editor
