With much of China locked down in April and some shipyards declaring force majeure, it was perhaps no surprise that deliveries for last month were quite modest, just 23 in total 12 from China 9 from Japanese yards and one each from the Philippines and South Korea.

To date 122 vessels have delivered of 11 MDWT consisting of 4 VLOC, 17 Capesize, 10 Post Panamax, 25 Panamax/Kamsarmax, 38 Supra/Ultramax and 28 Handysize. With strong freight markets demolition has remained subdued with just 12 vessels (half of which are Capesize) of 1.6 MDWT heading to the breakers so far this year.

291 vessels of 24 MDWT remain on the orderbook for 2022 and no doubt Chinese delivery schedules will undoubtedly be pushed back with so many of their yards idle during April thus we expect the delivery ratio to nominal orderbook to be somewhat less than last year’s impressive 83%. At the same time ordering is gaining pace with 775 dry cargo vessels of around 68 MDWT on the orderbook.

China dominates the forward orderbook with 451 vessels to Japan’s 272 with Philippines 49 and just two bulkers in South Korea. China also dominates the forward orderbook in certain vessel designs as for instance, China has 136 Kamsarmax’s scheduled to be delivered from their yards compared to just 31 from Japan and 24 from the Philippines. Only in the Handysize sector do Japan hold a numerical advantage with 85 vessels on order compared to China’s 59 with 2 scheduled from the Philippines.