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has been one of the weeks with the lowest
business in the shipbuilding industry,
indicating an almost 89% decline from
the record activity of the second week of
December.
Greek owners have been absent from
the market since the end of November with
only one capesize order reported in previous
week. In total, 17 new vessels have been
ordered equalling a total deadweight ordered
of around 1.423.200 with a quite massive
investment in the offshore sector and big
size bulkers being on the spotlight by major
players of the industry. SK Shipping ordered
in compatriot shipyard Hyundai H.I one unit
of 250,000 dwt for delivery in 2012. So,
even the oversupply issue in the VLOC and
capesize segment, some activity is still there
that may trouble even more large size units
in the dry sector within the next three to four
years. In the container segment, one more
massive investment has been reported this
week in the post panamax segment by one
more major player of the industry, OOCL,
for 2 units of 8,600 TEU for delivery in 2014.
It seems that now that financial problems
have been sorted, liner operators are trying
to rebuild their owned fleet, but the container
segment has not been fully recoverable and
there are worries for the 2011” said Golden
Destiny.
As far as demolition activity is concerned,
a weekly increase of 114% was noted this
week, as 15 vessels headed to scrap yards
equalling a total deadweight of 573,902 tons
with bulk carriers, tankers and liners holding
the 86% of the total demolition activity. In
terms of demolition countries, the news
are not so encouraging for the Bangladesh
industry as BELA has been successful once
again in its appeals to the high court and
allow no further imports of scrap vessels.
On December 15th, the BDESH High
Court passed an official order to local
authorities to cease the issuance of fresh
NOCs for future/incoming vessels. On the
other hand, in terms of scrap prices, the rates
are spectacular for the eager owners who are
ready to scrap their vintage tonnage.
China is said to have been bid $448/ldt
for a capesize built 1991 whereas Turkey
is offering region $300/ldt and Pakistan is
near fetching $500/ldt for wet units. At the
beginning of the year, scrap rates for dry
cargo were standing at $300-$350/ldt for dry
and $360-$400/ldt for wet cargo.
DARK POOLS BOOST SHARE
OF JAPAN EQUITY
The share of Japanese equity trades
taking place in dark pools, or private
systems that don’t display prices
publicly, is growing, according to data from
the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s alternative
share trading platform.
The share of Japanese stocks traded
on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Trading
Network, or Tostnet, increased to 10
percent in November from 7 percent in
March, when regulators first required dark
pools to connect to the system, the bourse
said.
Daiwa Securities Capital Markets is
among the operators of dark pools that
uses Tostnet, according to the brokerage’s
Global Head of Electronic Trading Services
Punit Mittal.
“The increase in Tostnet’s share of
trades shows use of dark pools is growing
in Japan,” said Lee Porter, Hong Kong-
based managing director for Liquidnet
Holdings Inc.’s Asian dark pool operations.
“Most of the major broker-dealers
have now deployed their dark pools in
Japan. You are now seeing the Japanese
domestic brokers doing the same too, so
clearly there is appetite.”
Japan’s Financial Services Agency in
March ruled dark pools must register as
proprietary trading systems or connect
to financial markets via systems such as
Tostnet.
Foreign brokers including Credit
Suisse, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley
operate dark pools in Japan alongside
domestic operators like Daiwa Securities.
Tostnet trades accounted for 6.6 percent
of domestic share volume at the Tokyo
exchange in 2009 and 6.2 percent in 2008,
according to bourse data.
Income May Drop
The portion of trades handled outside
of public exchanges in the Asia-Pacific
region is forecast to rise to 5 percent of
transactions within three years from about
2 percent this year, John Feng, New
York-based managing director of research
company Greenwich Associates, said.
Acquisitions
MARITIME
Tostnet’s increased share “signals
more dark pools exist here,” Tsuyoshi
Masuda, deputy director of the stockmarket
department at the exchange, said.
The exchange’s “income may drop if more
money shifts to dark pools from the auction
as Tostnet’s fees are cheaper than those
for auction trades.”
The commission for Tostnet is about
one-seventh of that charged for regular
auction trades, according to TSE. The
alternative trading system was launched
in 1998 as a venue for block share
transactions after regular trading hours.
The service was re-established as an
equities and derivatives platform in 2008.
“As traders and their trading needs
become more sophisticated they will need
to broaden their execution options,” Porter
said. “You will see a gradual increase
in the percentage of trades reported to
Tostnet as opposed to executed directly on
the TSE.”
Record Volume
Trading volume is at a record on Tostnet,
with about 39 billion shares changing
hands so far this year, according to
preliminary TSE data.
That compares to the previous record of
36.4 billion shares in 2009.
“It’s very difficult to estimate percentage
growth because dark pool statistics are
not officially published anywhere,” said
Daiwa’s Mittal.
Requiring dark pools to connect
to Tostnet or similar systems at other
exchanges “is a positive move as all
trades will be published and consolidated
on one venue to provide greater market
transparency and efficiency.”
The growth of dark pools in Asia
has lagged behind the U.S. and Europe
because regulators in the region have
been slow to accept the systems,
Greenwich’s Feng said.
Trades through dark pools this year
in the U.S. accounted for 10 percent of
the total, and 5 percent in Europe, he
estimates.
January 2011 Link
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