Taiwan’s U-Ming has now added to its fleet the seventh and eighth fuel-efficient and environmentally-friendly bulk carriers, named Cape Brilliance and Cape Galaxy.
The first six in this series of capesize orders by U-Ming were delivered between 2014 and 2015, allowing the shipowner to enhance its overall green image and competitiveness.
In recent years the shipping industry has seen an influx of newbuildings resulting in a serious oversupply situation. U-Ming noted, however, that this pressure is expected to ease gradually.
Since 2015, the scrapping of the old capesize vessels was about 28m dwt as compared to 2013-2014’s combined 12m dwt. On the supply side, during the past three years, 54m dwt of fresh tonnage hit the waters compared to 2010-2012’s combined 126m dwt. The accelerated scrapping and slowing down of tonnage growth are expected to pave the way for a more balanced demand-supply scenario, U-Ming believed.
U-Ming currently has five more newbuildings under construction, comprising of three ultramaxes and two panamaxes, due from Japan’s Oshima Shipyard by 2019.
Until then, the shipowner would have a total of 48 ships (including those in operation, under construction, joint ventures and ship management service), with a total tonnage of 6.09m dwt and an average fleet age of 6.5 years.
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