As Giorgos Bassakos, an analyst in the sales department of the shipping brokerage HellasChart, stated to “Naftemporiki”, the massive rerouting of ships from the Cape of Good Hope to avoid the Red Sea has resulted in longer journeys and additional demand for tonnage.
At the same time, however, there are few ships available for charter, leading to higher fares.
He is also focusing on enhanced containership flows to Russia, which further limits tonnage supply.
“We are seeing a significant increase in demand, which has fueled charter activity in the last week. The market is moving in favor of shipowners and their demands, which while at first seemed unattainable, now seem realistic. The readily available tonnage is and shipowners very limited and we are making every effort to push charter periods up to two years, putting less emphasis on the charter price,” emphasized MB Shipbrokers.
“In the past weeks, charterers have been unprepared to meet the demands of shipowners, particularly regarding charter durations.”
Greek shipowners leaders again
Among the latest deals, many of them are related to Greek-owned containerships. In particular, Braemar reported that the “Navios Dorado” (capacity 4,250 TEUs and built in 2010) of Navios Maritime Partners, owned by Aggeliki Fragou, has been chartered for an additional 18-20 months, for 24,750 dollars per day to Germany’s Hapag-Lloyd, a price increased by nearly 15% from the 21,676 dollars a day it was earning on a charter that expired in June.
At the same time, according to Braemar, the “Kassiakos” (capacity 4,360 TEUs and built in 2009) of Dioryx Maritime Services, owned by Dimitris Papadimitriou, has reportedly been contracted to Hapag-Lloyd for 11-14 months, with a price of 26,800 dollars per day. In November 2023, charter brokers reported that the vessel had been booked on a charter of up to nine months with Denmark’s Maersk for 16,500 dollars per day.
Another notable deal concerns a Greek-owned new ship with a capacity of 2,782 TEUs, which was chartered for two years at a price of 25,000 dollars per day to Maersk.
