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23^rd  February 2021

NWE/MED

We have seen less activity in North West Europe this week however, rates are still under upward pressure as we see a limited number of vessels available on prompt dates. Some charterers have been left on hold due to uncertain berthing prospects but prior weekend we start seeing owners’ prospects firming up. Despite less exports we expect to see less competition between smaller coasters as Eco Loyalty, Eco Royalty and Eco Corsair (all 3500 cbm PR) have been fixed away for timecharter. This will create even more pressure on the smaller coasters going forward. Larger coasters remain busy and the position list is tightening into middle/end of next week

SEA/FEAST

Spot propylene has been the flavour this week in the East pressurized market, with discussion of March exports from Taiwan, South Korea, Malaysia and Philippines. Continued demand for propylene imports from Americas and Europe has led to a surge in propylene prices in Asia. Chinese buyers have also shown appetite for March propylene with expectation of tight availability due to upcoming seasonal turnarounds.

There is a lack of C4 and LPG spot movements this week. Despite sufficient LPG supply, buyers are mostly covered and showed limited interest for further imports. PTT issued a C4 Raffinate tender this week but same has not attracted much buyers’ interest. The tender was awarded to PTT trading and expected to be China despite weak C4 Raffinate price.

Time Charter Fixtures

Vessel                   Built  CBM    Charterer Period           Delivery Laycan       Hire

Nanda Devi         2001 81960 IOC            12 months   AG             1-31 MAR USD 35k pd

Future Energy    2020 82000 SHV           25 days        AG             3-4 MAR    USD 15k pd

Sale and Purchase/New Buildings

New Buildings

Benelux Overseas (Athens) have added to the rapidly expanding midsize orderbook by contracting two 40,000 cbm’s at Hyundai Mipo Dockyard (HMD). The vessels are conventionally fuelled and are expected to deliver within 1H 2023. There has been no employment linked to this latest order, so we presume that the order is speculative. Like Union Maritime before them, this discussion reportedly started with LPG dual fuel VLGC’s at HHI before following the latest fashion for MGC’s at HMD. According to our records, this brings the total MGC orderbook to a rather staggering 24 vessels, 14 of which are expected to be fitted with LPG dual fuel and 10 of which are conventionally fuelled.

Second Hand

Sloman Neptun have sold the 5,600 cbm semi-ref ALPHAGAS (built 1996 at Appledore UK) to Cymare (Cyprus) and she has already been renamed G DANCER.

Anthony Veder have sold the 4,200 cbm semi-ref CORAL MILLEPORA (built 1997 at Shanghai Edward), with the new registered Owner listed as Famgas LLC (Serbia) with technical managers Safeship Management Inc (Athens). She has already been renamed GAZ NEMESIS.

Siam Lucky Marine have sold the 84,270 cbm ATHENA (built 1996 at KHI, ex-MING DE, ex-GAS MIRACLE) to Kai Heng Long Global Energy (HK), who we reported on 5th Feb had bought the 1993 built 78,500 cbm APHRODITE from same Seller.

Scrapping

No news to report

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