The ship recycling markets continues to perform well, according to GMS. The supply of tonnage remains primarily focused on wet and offshore units – particularly OSVs, FSUs, Aframax tankers, MRs and smaller bunkering tankers.
In particular Pakistan has been leading the way with some of the best numbers on show (especially on choice units), although Bangladesh is not far behind them and even India is slowly (and surely) competing on select specialist vessels, especially in the absence of many HKC green units being proposed for sale, said GMS in it weekly market note.
Levels across the sub-continent markets are now regularly in the mid USD 500s/LDT (and in some cases, even above), in the consistently highest ship recycling market we have seen since 2008.
Even in Turkey, despite fundamentals having (marginally) weakened and the Lira lingering at record lows this week, prices and demand have held on to the same level as last week.
COVID-19 continues to cause significant disruptions across the sub-continent and cases of the dangerous and highly transmissible Delta variant have been on the rise in Bangladesh over the course of last week, leading the government there to order a stricter lockdown and the closure of most offices / work places, in order to try and curb the spread of the virus.
Similarly in India, cases have been regularly hitting 40,000 - 50,000 per day - far better than the 400,000 cases per day that the country struggled with recently – and yet, certain states are recording a worrying rise in numbers again and the ongoing vaccine drive needs to continue at pace, in order to reduce the infection rate.