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Greek owners top dry bulk carrier demolition pile, but volumes tailing off

Greek owners top dry bulk carrier demolition pile, but volumes tailing off
With dry bulk ship scrapping surging the first half of the year Greek owners topped the pile in tonnage terms according to VesselsValue.com.

Greek owners scrapped 54 dry bulk vessels up till 6 July this year totaling 4.98m dwt. Some 20 capesizes accounted for 3.23m dwt of the total dry bulk tonnage scrapped by Greek owners.

While Greek owners scrapped the largest amount of bulkers in tonnage terms, Chinese owners scrapped the largest number with 71 vessels totaling 4.03m dwt sent to the breakers yard. However, only seven of these vessels were capesizes, while 29 were handy bulk carriers.

Meanwhile Singapore owners scrapped 11 bulkers totaling 1.46m dwt.

demoDemolitions of bulkers surged in the first half of 2015 as the dry bulk shipping market hit record lows. A recent report by Bimco said preliminary figures showed 20m dwt of bulkers being scrapped in the first half of the year, however as demand has improved for dry bulk shipping over the last month volumes have tailed of sharply from a peak 5.36m dwt sent to the breakers yards in April to around 2m dwt in June.

As a result Bimco analyst Peter Sand no longer expects a record year for scrapping of bulkers as had previously been expected.

“As the year progresses, Bimco expects the demand side to get stronger in connecting with rising volumes. 
This should positively impact the market conditions but at the same time also limit the demolition activity,” Sand said.

“In line with our recent adjustment of expectations for demolition activity in 2015, we do not see a new record year in spite of the strong start of the year.” bulk