Looking back, 2008 was a year for the history books. It will be remembered as a period of great contrasts. Newbuilding prices peaked in September, on the back of record breaking newbuilding activity, thereafter tumbling to what became a total collapse by end of the year, initialized by the financial crisis.rnNewbuilding prices for bulkers and tankers increased continuously from January throughout September, on average about 6.5 %; however, it was tankers that had the greatest contribution to the growth. On average, Supramax, Panamax and Capesize went up a little over 5% in this period, while on the tanker side, MRs, LRls, Aframax, Suezmax and VLCCs, grew slightly more than 7% on average. After September the story became completely different. Prices tumbled on the basis of virtually no sales. Prices in this period were therefore based on more of theoretic guesstimates proposed by brokers rather than reference sales in the market. Compared to the peak in September, December prices fell by 16%, lead by a 22% drop in dry bulk prices.
展开▼
