The pace of secondhand sales activity has remained firm in the year so far following record secondhand sales last year, with 804 ships of 30.0m GT reported sold in the first seven months of 2015. However, whilst the overall volume of sales has remained steady, there has been a change in the seller country rankings with Japanese owners slipping from the top spot for the first time since 2010.

There has been a strong level of sales activity in the ytd with 804 ships of 30.0m GT and a reported total value of $15.9bn sold, up 37% in GT terms on an annualised basis compared to the average volume of tonnage sold between 2005 and 2014. The ‘top ten’ seller countries accounted for the majority of these transactions, selling almost 80% of GT in the ytd.

The volume of GT sold by the top three seller countries (in terms of ytd sales), Greece, Germany and Japan, has increased 18% y-o-y on an annualised basis, taking their share of global sales up to 43% in the ytd from 35% last year. Greek owners have sold the most tonnage in the ytd, a reported 113 ships of 5.3m GT. Whilst this is up 64% y-o-y on an annualised basis, Greek owners continue to be net purchasers, although the balance between sales and purchases is much closer than in recent years.

German owners have sold the second largest volume of GT in the ytd (141 ships of 4.1m GT). This has been partly driven by the gradual divestment of tonnage following the collapse of the KG financing system back in 2009. Meanwhile, after four years at the top, Japanese owners have slipped into third place, selling 95 ships of 3.5m GT in the ytd, down 15% y-o-y on an annualised basis. This appears to be a change in the trend but is perhaps consistent with a growing appetite from Japanese owners for maintaining their fleet, evident from their increased newbuilding activity in the year so far.

Across the rest of the top ten seller countries, there have been mixed levels of activity in the year so far and a total of 247 ships of 10.8m GT have been reported sold. In sixth place are Singaporean owners who have already sold more tonnage than in full year 2014 (48 ships of 1.9m GT). Furthermore, new entrants to the top ten, Malaysian owners, have sold substantially more tonnage, 14 ships of 0.9m GT. Meanwhile, after strong sales last year, Chinese owners, have sold 39 ships of 1.2m GT in the year so far, a 58% drop y-o-y on an annualised basis to eighth place.

Alongside these trends, the average age of sales has dropped in recent years, falling from around 16 years in the late 2000s to just under 12 in the ytd. Whilst this partly reflects a fall in the average age of the fleet (from 20.6 years at the start of 2008 to 20.0 years at the start of 2015), it also reflects increased investor appetite for more modern tonnage. So, in addition to fairly strong S&P activity in the year so far, there have been a number of other interesting shifts in the secondhand sector. Keep a close eye on the World Fleet Monitor to see how these dynamics evolve during the rest of 2015.