Dry Bits

Ahoy There!
Some dry bits of news.

Golden Destiny:
In the demolition market, 83 vessels reported to have been headed to the scrap yards within October equaling a total deadweight of 2,172,061 tons, indicating a positive m-o-m change of 10.6%. The bulk carrier sector has showed some sings of positive movement with 15 vessels reported for scrap equaling a total deadweight of 815,172 tons, signaling an outstanding increase of 200% since previous month’s activity. Nevertheless, the volume of bulk carrier’s demolition transactions during the year to date is down by 53% in comparison with a similar period of 2009. The closing statement that bulker scrapping is 53% down from last year is testimony that the ship-owners will not be deterred by the facts and figures relative to supply and demand analysis. These folks are “weight watchers” and all that really matters to them is Tonnage, as in “I Control More Tonnage”. An ever increasing desire that will be satisfied with diminishing returns! It is Ski’s thought that they should seek help.

Port News:Australia’s Hay Point port, the world’s biggest export harbor for coal, may almost double its shipping capacity after the development of two terminals at the Dudgeon Point site, North Queensland Bulk Ports Corp. says. Construction may start as early as 2014, he said. Dudgeon Point is about 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) north of the existing facilities, which are 1,000 kilometers north of Queensland’s capital, Brisbane. Is anybody willing to bet about whether or not the Dudgeon Point terminals will handle “Chinamax” size vessels? As discussed previously by Dry Bits friend and S&P Broker Theo Scholiadis from N. Cotzias Shipping when he indicated we should not be surprised when China begins buying and building the monsters.

Freight News:Prices for coal shipped from South Africa’s Richards Bay, the continent’s biggest export facility for the fuel, rose to the highest level in more than two years on Chinese demand. “The bulk of recent imports have been from China,” Amrita Sen, a London-based analyst with Barclays Capital, said by phone today. Buyers have increasingly turned to South Africa for coal because supplies from Indonesia have been hampered by rainfall and Australian shipments face infrastructure bottlenecks, she said. I just read how the low grade stuff is going to India to fuel power stations, and today these folks say China. Maybe they are talking about higher grades of coal that are also available at RB? I’m not too sure but both stories mentioned the heavy rains in Indo, so maybe we got that part right.

World Economy News:Germany’s economy minister Rainer Bruederle has given an upbeat assessment of his country’s recovery, including the assertion that “full employment will soon be possible”. He said that Germans were “doing well and spending again”, and that domestic consumption was strong. Data released this week showed German business confidence at a 20-year high. German optimism is in marked contrast with the gloom engulfing some European economies struggling with high debts. This is an assessment we Yankee’s will not hear from our Government any time soon. It is good news nonetheless. I wonder what the BDI would look like in a world with full American employment returning soon.  Good Fortunes
Ski