Page 6: of Offshore Engineer Magazine (Jan/Feb 2023)

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MARKETS OFFSHORE SERVICE VESSELS © Björn Wylezich/AdobeStock

THE CASE FOR

OSV NEWBUILDS

Is the market ready for newbuild orders again?

By Jesper Skjong, market analyst, Fearnley Offshore Supply decade ago, the offshore support vessel market 250% in that same period. And while these numbers are saw newbuilds practically ?ying out of the docks signi?cant in themselves, the orderbook delivery schedule as the industry seemed to know no bounds to at the time had PSV ?eet growth at more than 150 and

A its potential growth. Back then, “sky’s the lim- 400% respectively in the same period! it” and anyone saying otherwise was simply left behind as In the years thereafter, the OSV market struggled with there were far more people eager to participate in the circus devastating oversupply, not just in light of the far weaker than realizing that it was getting out of hand. market activity in the years following 2015, but even com-

When the offshore activity hit a proportionally hard pared to the peak vessel demand in 2014. Regardless, the stop towards the end of 2014 and into 2015, the PSV shipyards continued building already ordered units, and newbuild orderbook stood at a record-high number of close to 200 PSVs have been delivered in the wake of the 360 vessels, around 30% of the total ?eet. Especially large- market crash.

capacity vessels were ordered in droves, and while the total As a result, at the trough of the market, in 2017, as

PSV ?eet grew by around 50% between 2010 and 2015, much as 40% of the total supply ?eet was laid up around the number of units with more than 4,000 DWT grew by the world, with dayrates suppressed to levels accordingly. 6 OFFSHORE ENGINEER OEDIGITAL.COM