Shipping Vessels anchored off Singapore?

Quoting from this article:
Freighters sitting unused near Singapore. Could be the largest gathering of ships in maritime history? Good read and a couple of good pix.

"The cost of chartering an entire bulk freighter suitable for carrying raw materials has plunged even further, from close to £185,000 ($300,000) last summer to an incredible £6,100 ($10,000) earlier this year. " That is a 96.7% decline in price!

ref: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/mos...t-recession-anchored-just-east-Singapore.html

Hi,

Yes it has been a long established anchoring place but it has never been as busy as it is now, a couple of months ago I was sent a photo taken out of a plane arriving in Singapore.

I was surprised how many ships were there, the same e mail also had an AIS Screen Shot, it was impossible to identify most of the ships as there were just so many.

Thanks for the link, very interesting read. A little disheartening since it (the global shipping industry) does seem like a more meaningful indicator than a LED ticker.

It might be if everyone was on the same level but in shipping that is not the case. Those little APL feeder boats in the picture are (were) part of a larger trade whereby small ships could load containers in small ports and feed them to the very large ships on the mainline routes, kind of a hub and spoke system like regional airlines feeding the majors. With high fuel costs and decent wages for skilled crew to operate a modern dependable feedership, these ships were undercut by rustbuckets that would have gone to the breakers more than a couple of years ago. The money is still there, it just isn't going to as many people anymore. Have you seen any huge price reductions in the goods on your local shelves?

The price of scrap is down so ships that would have been scrapped are still floating. Their owners don't want to pay for high price moorage so it pays to find a free or dirt cheap anchorage. There is a glut of tonnage and the Chinese are still building like mad, it keeps their workers employed and collects foreign currency, build prices are low, new ships don't require much maintenance for a year or two and labor prices are down.

This is not a phenomenon limited to ships, over 800 airliners have been mothballed in the southwest US in the past year. If they were parked anywhere but the desert I am sure they would be in a similar article.

Hi all,
Iam seeing this happening in Hong Kong / China as well, next to my apartment building in Hong Kong there use to be a container port now empty, when traveling around the harbour there is a lot more anchoured container vessels then there was 12 months ago.
Also when I travel up to the factories in china we pass many ideal river boats on the rivers of the pearl river delta, These boats use to be full of containers coming down the rivers to the port of Hong Kong or Shekou now just rust buckets on the river.
The factories that use to manufacturer containers are now empty or only producing small orders.
so I guess it is happening all over asia.

Compressed air? Solar panels? Hydrogen from seawater? LiPo batteries?

Hi,

It depends what you mean by a lot.

There is a steady stream of yachts passing through and there are marinas there capable of taking both large and small yachts.

Don't forget kites.

I just heard from a guy at the Newport show. "What a disaster. There are probably 40% fewer boats in the water than in prior years. Nothing from Aicon, Bertram, Carver, Cranchi, Cruisers, Fairline, Ferretti, Marquis, Neptunus, Sealine, Sunseeker or Viking. Only 1 Hatteras. No Sea Ray flybridges over 45 feet."

I've just come back from the Southampton Show, Europe's largest in water show. All the usual brands were there, Sunseeker, Fairline, Princess, Jen/Ben but the show was much smaller. That 35" to 45" market seems to have died.

Sunseeker sold 8 of the new 130" and a 150 footer and they have given-up selling the smaller stuff, no one was looking at the small Fairlines and only one or two for the Sealines.

Quite a few brands never even bothered to turn-up but there were hundreds of big RIBs everywhere, which is just fine by me.

Hi,

The Industry Bellweather starts next Wednesday so it remains to be seen how that show turns out.

Presently the list of attendees seems to have at least one mega yacht credited to the wrong shipyard so if the rest is like this I don't doubt it will be "different".

The dockside rumour machine at full revs, that makes a nice change at a Boatshow for once.

I know that the Fort Lauderdale show has had no problem selling out the booth spaces, it is sold out. One former exhibitor thta I know had given up their space, within one day is was sold to the next person on their list. Let's hope Monaco and Ft. Lauderdale have some good business.