28 vessels totaling 2.1 MDWT delivered in August comprising 2 Capesize, 2 Post Panamax, 7 Panamax/Kamsarmax , 13 Supra/Ultramax and 4 Handysize; to date there has been 20.2 MDWT. On the flip side only 2 vessels (one Panamax and one Handysize) were scrapped in August making a total 18 (2 MDWT) for the year so far. Though we have very little demolition we expect deliveries to be relatively modest for the balance of 2022 so our forecast for net fleet growth this year continues to be around 25 MDWT.

The nominal orderbook for 2022 stood at 35.6 MDWT in January and with perhaps 6 MDWT slippage into 2023, next years orderbook looks similar in DWT to 2022. Looking at the different sectors, in the largest sizes whilst there are no longer any VLOC’s on the orderbook, there are a similar number (51) Capesizes and Post Panamax (32) to this year but in the Panamax (at over 100) there are around 20 more vessels on the 2023 orderbook. In the Supra-Ultramax (97) and Handysize (75) by contrast there are less deliveries expected in 2023 than 2022. Overall, the forward orderbook (67.2 MDWT) is dominated by Chinese shipyards in all sectors except for Handysize where Japanese yards still hold sway.