GMS: Another quiet week across the ship recycling globe

Moreover, GMS notes that as an increasing number of vessels had been nearly recycled, and barely any meaningful arrivals were reported at the respective waterfronts (ZERO in India this week), frustrated industry players were just going with the depressive flow.

With that being said, and reportedly this week, amidst a sea of floating oldies, several high-priced sales were surprisingly confirmed to the various markets (essentially Bangladesh and Pakistan), further raising eyebrows and likely giving everyone the (misdirected) impression that levels were on the up again. Perhaps the shortage of supply was further driving prices up to tempt Owners even more, amidst this excruciating tonnage famine and address head-on, the extremely bleak few quarters of minimal activity and a subsequently pessimistic outlook for the ship recycling industry overall.

Meanwhile, the aforementioned frayed supply of recycling tonnage, which essentially consisted of much older dry bulk / general cargo vessels & container units, not only highlighted how well freight rates in these sectors had been performing so far this year but also answered the reason for the extremely poor condition and older vessels that (had been and) were being drip-fed into the market. We have all of the ongoing geopolitical tumult to thank for having kept chartering rates this artificially elevated, thereby causing inflation to run amok in countries such as Turkey, which we may as well stop reporting about at this point as it remains deathly quiet.

In comparison, even India seemed to be finding partial form once again, with some unexpected offers being tabled on the bare minimum number of available candidates. These offers were, of course, well behind a firmer Pakistan and even firmer Bangladeshi market. But it was good to finally see signs of life here, as most in Alang were anxiously awaiting the election results, in the event a market catastrophe befalls the country’s economy on account of a Modi government’s re-election loss. Globally, all recycling nation currencies remarkably posted positive movements this week – including Turkey, where the Lira actually firmed at the close of the week. Having been subject to a tumultuous time, could the economies of nations dependent on ship recycling now be finding stable footing at long last? Time would certainly tell.

For week 14 of 2024, GMS demo rankings/pricing for the week are as below.

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