French orders to foreign shipyards

48
at $4.8 million (for the “Sanko South”), reaching
$7.2/7.3 million by July this year (for the “Vivita”) and
maintaining these levels into the last quarter (the “Sea Ripple”
obtaining $7.25 million in October). Vessels which were
found to be in poor condition and/or poor specifications
changed hands at lower prices (such as the “Golden Farmer”
sold for $5.9 million in July). Demand for the excess
41,000 dwt ships was more evident and the lack of availability
of quality tonnage meant competition became
more fierce which led prices to quickly reach for a 15
years-old ship the region of $7.9/8.3 million and such
levels are still being maintained.
• As for the Panamax class, Handymax ladies in excess of
20 years of age also found buyers who could have a use
for them. We saw the “Gloria”, a 1977-built Future-32 being
sold amongst Greeks for $3 million in December whereas
the 1980-built exact sister “Rosina Topic” was sold in April
for precisely the same amount of money and the “Juno”,
another 1977-built sister, was sold at $2.35 million in April.
As far as the near future is concerned and whilst predictions
are something all professionals try to avoid, we
hope that the very large number of newbuilding orders
placed during 1999 will not cause a similar crisis such as
our industry has experienced both in the recent past
as well as in the eighties. For this to happen however,
hoping will not be enough and more scrapping of older
ships is needed combined with continued growth of
world trade in a healthy financial, crisis-free, environment
(no repeating of Far Eastern style financial problems).