Clarksons: "A special year for second-hand ships"
In a recent report, Clarksons says that 2021 witnessed a record in the second-hand ship trading market. All in all, 2,507 ships and 147 million deadweight t (mdwt) changed hands. They represent 7% of the total fleet and an estimated value of USD 47,000 million.
After a dip, activities began to rebound strongly at the end of 2020 and continued throughout last year. Second-hand ship prices almost doubled (+97% on average), according to the Clarksons index, and up to 168% in the case of container ships. Here, deals were closed for a value of more than USD 13.1 billion, driven by extraordinary market conditions and the scarcity of available tonnage. This meant tripling the previous record of 2007 with more than 1.6 million teu sold, 7% of the registered fleet at the beginning of 2021.
The Swiss container shipping company MSC acquired 27% of the tonnage of the trading operations in that sector. According to Clarksons’ most recent data, the trend continues in 2022, and there have already been deals worth USD 6.2 billion in the first six weeks of this year. (sh)