According to Mr Simeon Palios chairman & CEO of Diana Shipping, dry docks were not expanding fast enough to match the growth of the global shipping fleet, delaying repairs and possibly bolstering hire rates.
Mr Palios said that “Ships need to dry dock routinely for repairs to remain acceptable for customers including grain shippers. A shortage of dry docks would cause delays and reduce the number of ships available, buoying rental costs. The size of the fleet has doubled but the brand new ships don’t dry dock.”
He added that “When these vessels come to dry dock, it’s going to be a problem.”
The Baltic dry index, a measure of shipping costs for commodities, has risen 31% this year due to port congestion in nations such as China and Australia. Demand for commodities is rising, with the UBS Bloomberg CMCI index of 26 raw materials up for the seventh day in a row.
