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time intensive, and may lead to poor levels of debt recovery, particularly in a depressed second-hand vessel saleand-purchase market. A prudent, well informed and experienced ship financier will take steps to support a struggling ship owner, more so where there was a long-term relationship between the bank and its customer before the problems arose. We tend to see a complete collapse such as Hanjin as a last resort, the ‘nuclear’ option. “Times have been difficult for everybody, not just for the ship owners, but also their investors, bankers, lessors, manag-
ers, charterers and the shipping lawyers working for them all.”
REDUCING THE GAP
Asset values have taken a considerable hit, with secondhand multipurpose ship values now nearly on a par with newbuild prices, and both are considerably weaker than just a few years back. Commenting on the near meeting of newbuild versus secondhand asset values, Will Bennett, VesselsValue senior analyst, said: “The flattening is down to the fact that obviously newbuildings aren’t worth the high values that they
were worth in 2007 and that modern tonnage of under 10 years is holding its value – although not at the same levels as during 2007, hence it appears that the values have flattened.” Toepfer Transport counted about 80 western-specified multipurpose vessels of between 5,000 and 32,000 deadweight tons for sale during the last couple of months, revealing the extent of the glut. Nicolas Breiding of the company’s research team said: “Many vessels are on the market at reduced prices while the number of buyers has not increased, which explains the falling price expecta-
"IT REMAINS TO BE SEEN WHETHER REMAINING
PLAYERS IN THE MARKET ACT THOUGHTFULLY."
– Ulrich Ulrichs
Blade lifter Specialist for Green Power Project Transports
FIRST CLASS IN PROJECTS
14 BREAKBULK MAGAZINE www.breakbulk.com
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ISSUE 5 / 2016