French orders to foreign shipyards

40
Million cu ft
400
390
380
370
360
350
340
330
320
310
300
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• “Belgian Reefer”, “Brazilian Reefer”, sisterships of
690,880 cu ft, built in 1983 and 1984, deck-height 2.20
meters, 7,830 square meters, 18 knots, 152 teu, four
10-tonne cranes, sold by Ugland to Swan Reefer as a
parcel for a reported price of $29.5 million, with an attached
charter running till June 2002 to Lauritzen Reefers, at
a rate of around 65 cents/cu ft/30 days.
The almost certain overall decrease in available tonnage,
a result of low newbuilding orders, should be beneficial
to the second-hand market in 2000. After a three-year
wait, the market is finally beginning to adjust itself.
Unlike other markets such as containerships and bulk carriers,
where adjustments are occurring through the massive
influx of newbuildings, the reefer market is currently
living off its “own reserves”. This explains the relatively
high number of transactions this year. In view of the still
limited prospects for increased charter rates, there is no
reason to suppose that ship prices will increase in 2000.
In fact, if shipowners allow themselves to be tempted by
newbuildings, they could even fall.
Newbuilding
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Considering what has already been described, it is not
surprising that the number of orders placed in 1999 was
even smaller than the previous year.
Hamburg-Süd exercised its option for two vessels from
the Japanese shipyard Shikoku Dockyard (506,228 cu ft,
deck-height 2.20 meters, 5,944 square meters, 4,644 palets,
21 knots, 306 teu, two 40-tonne cranes and two 8-tonne
cranes - for delivery in December 1999 and April 2000).
Apart from that, the only other order placed came from
the South Korean owner Boyang for the vessel “Sohoh”,
236,000 cu ft, deck-height 2.20 meters, 2,550 square meters,
1,875 palets, 16 knots, from the Japanese shipyard Kyokuyo.
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Reefer vessels fleet evolution
(vessels of 40,000 cu ft and above)
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The vessel was ordered in January and delivered in
September 1999.
The number of planned deliveries for 2000 (which has
risen from 2 to 19 since December 1998), has nothing to
do with new orders, but rather to delays in delivering
vessels initially scheduled for 1999 delivery.
In view of changes in freight rates and the direction the
market is taking, it is likely that newbuilding in 2000 will
be extremely limited.
Nevertheless, a Danish engineering firm IMA has developed
a new concept for reeferships, involving a centre section
with around 600,000 cu ft of refrigerated capacity under
the bridge, to which are joined forward and aft two sections
able to hold a total of approximately 400 forty-foot
containers. Construction prices for such a vessel would
be in the region of $32-35 million.
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