Global orders for new ships increased by nearly 300%, and the shipbuilding market cycle has turned around.

The new orders of China Heavy Industry in the first half of the year were 40.84 billion yuan, an increase of 65.07%, of which, the new orders of private vessels increased by 390%; Completed and delivered 3.9 million deadweight tons of ships, up 8.03% year on year. In the same period, CSSD achieved business orders of 5.721 billion yuan, an increase of 157.82%.

According to the statistics of the China Shipbuilding Industry Association, from January to August this year, the global shipbuilding completion volume and new orders were 59.13 million deadweight tons, 94.74 million deadweight tons, and the hand-held orders at the end of August were 19.665 million deadweight tons, year-on-year, the shipbuilding completion volume declined slightly, and the new orders increased by 298.1%. Hand-held orders at the end of August were up 29.5 per cent.

Among them, China's situation is also more optimistic, in the first eight months of this year, shipbuilding completion, new orders and hand-held orders were 26.26 million deadweight tons, 49.11 million deadweight tons, 91.47 million deadweight tons, an increase of 8.96%, 227.2%, 26% year-on-year in 2020.

Although the three major indicators of the shipbuilding market have risen to varying degrees, there is still a surplus of shipyard capacity. A shipyard person told e company reporter that at present, production capacity will not become a constraint on the company's order and development, the company can organize and coordinate production through reasonable production scheduling, and start construction according to the time agreed on in the contract.

The second-hand and charter markets are active

As mentioned, ship construction takes a long time, and new orders are difficult to replenish capacity immediately, but the market is not waiting for anyone. Taking the data as of September 10, for example, the European route freight level rose 611% year on year, the Mediterranean route rose 561% year on year, and the US-East route rose 159% year on year.

In the face of soaring freight rates, the industry once joked, "300 containers, shipped from China to the United States, a freight can buy a ship." This also led to the second-hand ship market, the report shows that recently, the 2011 construction of 181,000 DWT Capescape FrontierPhoenix ship to 33.75 million US dollars sold; An 82,000 DWT Kamsa Ranger built in 2012 sold for $24 million, and a 38,000 DWT Nicoline built in the same year sold for $20 million.

In addition, the "ship" has also become the object of competition, September 1, a bulk carrier in the Zhejiang shipping market under the "auction ship network" at a high price of 36.03 million US dollars (about 233 million yuan), more than the starting price of 5.85 million US dollars (about 37.85 million yuan), the auction of bulk carriers for international routes, is expected to be delivered in June next year.

A number of shipowners, including Maersk, forecast high freight rates until at least the middle of 2022. In terms of the mentality of buyers of second-hand ships or "ships", this can not only save the time of shipbuilding, but also accurately grasp the market peak and put into operation as early as possible.

Build if you can; buy if you can; rent if you can't; The hot ship leasing market is another side of the current market. On August 11, CDB Leasing's 2021 interim results showed that the company's operating income in the first half of the year was about 10.442 billion yuan, an increase of 8.6%. Net profit was about 1.812 billion yuan, up 46.2% year on year.

According to the statement of CDB Leasing, the main reasons for the growth in performance include the increase in total leased assets due to the increase in investment during the reporting period, and the revenue from ship operating leasing also increased significantly year-on-year. The reporter noted that the bank of China Leasing while building new ships, while buying second-hand ships, expanding the size of the fleet, the first half of the delivery of 13 new ships, 23 second-hand ships.

In addition to banking leasing companies, leasing companies from the manufacturer's department also performed well. China Ship Leasing posted a net profit of 646 million yuan in the first half, up about 28% from a year earlier. The company said that the increase in performance mainly came from three aspects, first, the number of vessels in operation increased to 114 from 84 in the same period last year, second, the average cost of interest-bearing liabilities decreased to about 2.2% from 3.3% in the same period last year, and third, the operating income and profit of the company's self-operated dry bulk fleet increased significantly compared with the same period last year.

"Benefiting from the popularity of the current bulk shipping market, the second-hand and charter markets are also hot." Han Jun, chief analyst of Citic Construction and Investment Transportation, provided data to e company reporters show that as of September this year, the second-hand price index of container ships increased by 162%, the rate of container shipping in August increased by 583%, and ship owners are now required to sign three or even five years of lease contracts.