Building for the Future

31 Jul 2015: Should tanker owners take advantage of low yard prices?  The tanker market has been doing very well so far this year, both for crude carriers and product tankers.  Not surprisingly, contracting has picked up from previous years for most tanker segments.  Owners are eager to take advantage of the strength in the market and the second-hand market is relatively tight, with more prospective buyers than sellers.  This has created wide bid-ask spreads, especially for modern vessels.  At this stage in the recovery, one may have expected shipyard prices to have increased materially as well, however this has not happened (yet) for various reasons.  So, let’s take a look at newbuilding activity in the tanker space and put it in the context of overall ordering across all shipping markets. Download here