Greek Shipowners Put Billions into New Orders in Jan-Oct 2018

Greek shipowners invested over 10 billion dollars in new orders and in the acquisition of second-hand vessels in the first 10 months of the year, shipbrokers Golden Destiny said this week.

According to data released by the Piraeus-based firm, Greek shipping interests focused their new orders more on tankers and LNG carriers compared to a year ago due to an expected increased demand for liquefied natural gas (LNG) in the near future.

Greek shipowners invested a total of 6.07 billion dollars in new orders in the first 10 months of 2018, with global shipping interests spending 30 billion dollars in the same period.

Golden Destiny provisional data further notes that the number of new ship orders increased by 43 percent in the 10 months compared to the same period last year, to a total of 677 orders for new vessels.

Meanwhile, the number of orders by Greek shipping interests grew by 32 percent to 121 vessels, compared to 92 ships last year. Their Chinese rivals placed orders for 203 ships, up by 83 percent in the same period.

In terms of new tanker orders, Greek shipowners placed 54 orders compared to 46 in 2017 and 27 for LNG carriers against none last year with orders for bulkers down to 29 in 2018, from 41 a year ago.

At the same time, Allied Shipbroking data reveals that a total of 1,230 vessels valued at 15.76 billion dollars were exchanged in the first 10 months of 2018.

In the lead yet again in second-hand acquisitions were Greek shipping interests with 3.87 billion dollars worth of investments in 252 ships – broken down into 153 bulkers (2.02 billion dollars), 64 tankers (1.32 billion dollars), 25 containerships (384 million dollars) and five gas carriers (126 million dollars).

Next in line we the Chinese, who purchased 185 ships valued at 1.63 billion dollars, followed by British and Norwegian shipping interests.

In terms of sales, Greeks sold 152 vessels worth 2.89 billion dollars in the 10-month period, followed by the Japanese with 149 ships (2.24 billion dollars) and the Germans with 123 ships (1.09 billion dollars).