Page 47: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (June 2011)

June 2011www.marinelink.com 43smaller but by much. For this year there is expected around 400 ships increase in the sectors we are involved in, Handy- size, Handymax, Panamax and Capesize. We still are quite worried or concerned of this forward supply." Luckily there is still a strong cargo de- mand, especially from China. "Some600m tons of iron ore were imported lastyear and maybe some 10% more thisyear, but still not enough to encounter the huge oversupply of tonnage in the mar- ket. Coal has also been heavily moving into China, the main driver on the mar- ket, and to India, one of the countries with the largest growth." Jarde points out that the coal market was still less than 100m tons per year. "Some analysts say the expected growth of the market is 10% while the fleet is expected to grow by 14%, so there is an imbalance there." Henotes that iron ore major VALE is build- ing a fleet of extremely large iron ore car- riers in order to ship their own iron ore, mainly to China. "We are fairly small in Capesize, the segment being most af- fected by this, but I think this will have a general effect also on the Panamax ves- sels, to a certain extent. This is also seen on the market, with index below 10,000, while Panamax and Handymax are trad- ing around 16,000. Capesize has been de-tached from the rest of the market," Jarde notes. "They are at the level when people are considering to lay-off." But when looking at the whole picturethings look quite bright for some. Jardenotes that the price for transporting ironore (to China) is $175 per ton. "Iron orecosts less than $30 to produce and thecost of trade is now $8, so there are ob- viously some mining companies makingan extreme amount of money." He says the iron ore imports to China are de-pendent on what can be supplied at thispoint.Norden is focusing on a 15% annualgrowth in their dry cargo sector. The company just received a contract for transporting 10m ton coal annually fromSpitsbergen for 2011-2016. Lauritzen Bulkers is by far the biggest activity within J.Lauritzen A/S. It is one of the top five handysize bulk pool oper- ators in the world, with 100 vessels in the pool. Some 19 vessels are fully owned, 25 part owned and the remaining fleet are on time charter, pool partners or on joint charters. The fleet consists of the entire range of vessels from 27,000 dwt Handy- size bulker, Handymax and Panamax vessels and up to 180,000dwt Capesize bulk carriers. The Handysize, all vessels fitted with grabs, comprises some 75% of the ship-days of the company. The busi- ness is carried out from offices in Singa- pore, Stamford and Copenhagen. "InStamford, we have always been an in- dustrial carrier," notes Ejner Bonderup, President, Lauritzen Bulkers A/S. "This is part of our strategy," he says, as op- posed to being a tonnage provider by time chartered out business. Lauritzen Bulker is slowly and steadily increasing its fleets also in Handymax, to gain crit-ical mass. In Panamax and Capesize, it is a question of creating a foundation in thebusiness, with time-charter contracts of 5, 10 or even 15 years with good reliable customers. "We are clearly tonnage providers in the bigger segments of the business." Bonderup believes the recent tsunami catastrophe in Japan will have a positive effect on the bulker market, in the longer term. "But we are in for a hugenewbuilding program within the dry bulk sector, and over the next couple of years we will have some challenges in this sec- tor. The demand size actually looks pos- itive and healthy. Our problem is the number of ships coming into the market." The newbuilding program of Lauritzen Bulkers consists of 29 vessels, 42% of which are its own. Half of the company's newbuildings are Handysize vessels, Stability & Strength Assessment Cargo Management & Load Planning Ship Design & Production World Wide Service and Support creating seaworthy software www.autoship.com Why go anywhere else? Ship Building & Repair Products CHOCKFAST ORANGE ® the reliable, poured-in-place, epoxy resin chocking system used in the installation of more than 40,000 main propulsion engines. www.chockfast.com Anti-Slip Safety Coatings American Safety Technologies has been the world leader in the manufacturer of anti-slip and interior polymeric coating systems for over 94 years. www.astantislip.com Proven Epoxy and Polymer Products for all Types of Vessels... Offshore Platforms... Mooring Buoys... Oceanographic Equipment... Crane Rails... and other Marine Applications. Interior & Exterior Deck Coverings PolySpec ® the most comprehensive line of polymeric exterior and interior decorative deck coverings available for ships and offshore drilling platforms. www.polyspec.com ? Engineered Solutions for Engineers. To learn more on how ITW Polymer Technologies can help solve your problems visit www.polytech.com. Chocking Compounds | Adhesives | Repair Products | Commercial & Marine Environment Coatings