三光濒临破产
2012.04.01
本期头条 贸易凤周刊 3月14日 三光船务公司是日本第一家悬挂权宜国国旗的船东但因作风脱离日本传统几十年来几经起伏. 该公司上世纪开始80年代因油荒曾经于1985年宣布破产然后瘦身重组而得以继续营业.时经27年这个历史重演, 最近该公司又因资金周转困难和负债 13.1亿美元而向20家西方船东要求租金减半以渡难关. (图 1).
Sanko seeks huge cuts in charter rates
Some 20 European shipowners are being approached to chop charter rates in half.
Sanko Steamship is set to hit around 20 European shipowners with a demand to cut charter rates in half when they meet in London today in make-or-break talks to save the beleaguered Japanese company.
Sources suggest Sanko may find it difficult to apply for a second round of court protection following its spectacular collapse and administration in 1985, and its survival could now hinge on discussions with owners and winning additional support from banks.
It is understood that Goldman Sachs has been appointed to assist in the financial restructuring of Sanko. The Tokyo-based company is weighed down by debts of ¥108bn ($1.31bn) and is urging banks for additional credit lines as it attempts to put together a “Japan Inc”-style deal to see it through the downturn.
One owner with a handymax bulker on charter to Sanko says he has been asked to reduce the long-term, $40,000-per-day charter rate to 20% below the current one-year time-charter rate of $10,000 per day.
Sources suggest the company is seeking to reduce the terms on a dozen capesize bulkers delivered last year from rates of around $45,000 per day to some $14,000 per day. The current three-year time-charter market for capesize bulkers is $17,000 per day, with the spot market paying just $3,400 per day. Rates after April are also said to be up for renegotiation.
Because of the short notice owners say they were waiting to see if Sanko automatically reduces the next charter payments.
Sanko would not comment on the rates but stresses that despite the renegotiations, it still “fully intends to meet its financial obligations” and the talks are about a “deferment of payment” to “restructure and strengthen the company’s balance sheet”.
The pressing need to reduce rates on its long-term charters is demonstrated by its balance sheets. The last figures available show that for the full fiscal 2010 year (ending in March 2011) Sanko’s charter bill came in at a whopping ¥109.5bn ($1.3bn).
Total losses from its shipping operations amounted to ¥11.9bn.
2011 has proved an even more difficult trading year. The majority of Sanko’s 195-strong, 13-million-dwt fleet is chartered in on a long-term basis.
A total of 15 secondhand-ship sales to improve cash flow at the company since May last year has raised some $374m, according to information from online platform VesselsValue.com.
VesselsValue.com estimates the current owned Sanko fleet at 26 vessels worth $577.1m, including four owned handysize bulkers valued at $100m.
One of its major charter clients is Hamburg-based Hellespont, from which it charters four suezmax tankers, six long-range-one (LR1) tankers and four offshore vessels. The suezmaxes were taken at around $34,000 per day, as compared to current long-term charter rates of $19,000 per day — although some had been relet on profitable period deals. Another major charterer is Norway’s DSD Shipping, with four aframax tankers fixed to Sanko at rates around $20,000 per day.
Knightsbridge Tankers says it would seek to “protect the value of the contract”. The US-listed company has the 170,000-dwt capesize Battersea (built 2009) on charter to Sanko at $39,000 per day.
Opinions are split on how owners will react to Sanko’s demands.
One broker said: “All our clients are saying Sanko is still paying its bills and just wants to get through a difficult period. But it needs to do something now. Sanko is a top-notch charterer and it is a prompt payer so there is a lot of goodwill toward the company — as is the case with a lot of the Japanese companies. Some owners have made a lot of money from these charters. My feeling is that there will be support to help it get through this but at the end of the day it’s all about money and how much Sanko wants.”
Others are not so optimistic. “Some of the owners Sanko is talking to are struggling themselves, especially in Japan where they have been hit by the appreciation of the yen and bunkers in exactly the same way as Sanko has. They don’t have much room to negotiate themselves,” one said.
Another says there is a lot of uncertainty over Sanko’s financial position. “Sanko really does remain part of Japan Inc. It’s like a black box. For outsiders there is no insight into their financial position,” he added.
Published: 20:12 GMT, 14 Mar 12 | updated: 20:12 GMT, 14 Mar 12
‘It’s deja vu all over again’
Sanko holds an unenviable place in contemporary shipping and Japanese history. It has repeatedly flirted with oblivion, only to be saved by the closely controlled markets of Japan Inc.
In 1985, when it first filed for protection from its creditors and re-organization under Japan’s bankruptcy laws, Sanko became the largest post-World War II Japanese corporate failure.
With around 250 mostly chartered tankers and bulkers, it had bank debts of around $2bn and chartering and trading debts of another $2bn, dwarfing the $750m collapse of Eidai in 1978.
Even though it was saved at that time, it has never recovered a place at the “top table” of Japanese shipping, which today remains dominated by the big three, Nippon Yushen Kaisha Line (NYK), Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL) and K Line.
Now 27 years later, Sanko is teetering again. As US baseball great — and legendary quote maker — Yogi Berra said: “It’s deja vu all over again”.
In reality, however, the story is less about questionable management and more about the way Sanko has never truly recovered from its first flirtation with collapse after the 1973 oil shock. Sanko found itself saddled with large numbers of new and expensive VLCCs acquired in an ambitious expansion programme over the previous few years.
Under the leadership of Sanko founder and former president Toshio Komoto, an initial restructuring plan was put in place to move the focus away from tankers and onto bulkers — placing the now infamous huge order.
When that market collapsed in the early 1980s, the game really was up and Komoto had to resign from Japan’s cabinet, in which he sat as a senior member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
While Sanko survived — albeit in reduced shape — the turmoil of the 1980s, it never recovered its market position.
Understanding the detail of the firm’s financial position remains as much a problem today as it was 27 years ago.
However, there is at least one broad lesson from this latest financial crunch, which should be understood by the wider world: with Sanko in crisis there can be no denying that global bulk shipping markets are in the depths of a very serious recession.
Published: 20:10 GMT, 14 Mar 12 | updated: 20:10 GMT, 14 Mar 12
贸易凤周刊 3月14日
Yard in frame over sinking 中国某修船厂因南京远洋货轮“Yuan Tong”(1990) 7,400-dwt于出坞后不久即沉没,船上8名人员失踪而受责问. (图2).
A bulker goes down with the loss of up to eight lives shortly after sailing from a repair yard.
A bulker that sank claiming the life of one seafarer and leaving seven missing shortly after it left a shipyard had been highlighted as suffering from a structural fault prior to its drydocking.
But the unusual sinking is being attributed to mistakes in refloating the vessel from drydock.
The 7,400-dwt Yuan Tong (built 1990) sank shortly after leaving China’s Zhoushan Longshan Shipyard on Tuesday. Reports suggest the vessel sank from the bow. A search-and-rescue operation discovered one body but seven are missing. There were 40 on board when the accident happened.
A port-state-control (PSC) inspection at the port of Guangzhou first detected an unidentified structural fault on the Yuan Tong on 19 January, according to Tokyo MOU PSC records.
The vessel was being monitored closely by PSC as it faced subsequent inspections on 13 February in Kuantan in Malaysia then again at the same port just three days later. The structural fault remained as a deficiency on its last inspection, suggesting it had not been addressed.
Nine PSC inspections of the vessel have taken place since April 2011 and all have uncovered deficiencies, although none of them were serious enough to merit detention. The vessel is listed as a “high priority for inspection” by the Tokyo MOU based on its age and high deficiency rate, which explains the frequent number of inspections.
The Yuan Tong went into drydock at Longshan on 1 March. Given the build date of the Panamanian-registered, it was likely for its intermediate survey. It is listed as certified by ClassNK, although no comment was available from the Japanese classification society before TradeWinds’s press time.
However, one source says it appears several access holes on the ship had been left open when it was floated out of dock with tug assistance, and that is suspected of causing the water ingress that led to the eventual sinking.
According to local reports, there was also an unusually large complement on board when it sank. According to the Zhoushan Maritime Bureau, which headed the rescue operation, there were around 40 people on board the vessel.
The ship’s protection-and-indemnity (P&I) insurance is with Skuld.
The loss is the second major casualty for the vessel’s owner, Nanjing Ocean Shipping Co (Nasco). Back in November 2010, the 56,000-dwt Nasco Diamond (built 2009) was lost off Taiwan along with 20 of its crew while carrying a cargo of nickel ore which is understood to have liquefied causing the loss.
Published: 19:49 GMT, 14 Mar 12 | updated: 19:49 GMT, 14 Mar 12
希腊船务日报3月17-31日
1. -Maersk Line宣布从5月1日开始, 亚洲到美国之运费将作下列之调整:
亚洲到美西: 20尺箱每箱提高400美元, 40尺箱500美元.
亚洲到美东: 20尺箱每箱提高560美元, 40尺箱700美元.
2. -去年世界各大集装箱船务公司均告亏损,其中长荣达 6.1亿美元, 中远为16.6亿美元.
3. -上个月响应长荣公司长期租用13,000-teu新船计划之西方公司现仅剩二家.
4. -中海以10年和每天租金 19,700美金向 Seaspan所租用之 “CSCL Ningbo” 和 “CSCL Dalian” (2002) 4,250-teu 于今年4月到期后决定不再续租.
劳氏船务日报3月17-31日
1. -Maersk Line已暂停对亚-欧航线之订位 (booking), 业者预料此举乃涨价之前兆.
2. -自从澳大利亚煤码头恢复正常运作之后, 中国之煤炭进口量己提高三倍.
3. -BHP Billiton预测2012年中国之矿砂石进口量将减一半.
4. -大新华未能支付购买泉州 Titan修船厂最后一期之款项.
二：造船 (Shipbuilding)
1. -韩国韩进公司从现代造船厂接手二条 13,100-teu新船 “Hanjin Sooho” 和 “Hanjin Asia”,新船船身 1200x150x230尺,时速23.7节并将加入亚-欧航线. 该公司共订有此类新船9条其他7条将于2012/2013年交船.
2. -Zodiac公司以 3800万美元低价从熔盛造船厂买进一条尚在建造中 176000-dwt Capesize 新船. 这个价位对价值经已低迷之 Capesize船只带来极大之冲击.
3. -由上海 Solar Solve 太阳能公司制造和出品之 80 Dimmlite roller blinds 将开始安装在 VLCC 驾台和船上所有窗门以减少太阳之射入.
4. -英国 BP油轮公司向各造船厂发出建造14条油轮之投标通知.
三：港口 (Terminals)
1. -Maersk Line母公司 AP Moller属下之 APM Terminals已在它们的码头做好准备迎接下一代超巨型 22,000-teu货箱船之到来.
2. -阿根廷因港口工人罢工而影响到小麦和黄豆之出口.
3. -印度 Chennai 货箱码头因面积太小和公路拥挤被迫停工二天清理堆积之货箱.
四：海难 (Casualty)
1. -2个月内笫三条豪华游轮 “Azamara Quest”(2000) 30,000g/t, 载有617名乘客 3月30日于婆罗洲外海发生机房失火而漂流24小时, 抢修后以每小时3-6节开往附近港口 Sandakan并于今天到达.
2. -南京远航之 “Yuan Long”(1990) 7,400-dwt上月13日于离开 Longshan船厂时不久, 船首开始进水不久之后沉没, 8名人员失踪.
五：买卖/租贷 (S/P & Chartering)
1. S & P
-“Champion Power” (1999) 105083-dwt, Tanker usd 13.80M, Greek
-“High Prosperity” (2006) 48711-dwt, Tanker usd 22.50M, Italian
-“Mining Star” (2005) 76225-dwt, Bulker usd 21.50M, unknown
-“Energy Prometheus” (1998) 74083-dwt, Bulker usd 13.00M, unknown
-“Epanothosis” (2004) 73630-dwt, Bulker usd 20.30M, Korean
-“Silver Mey” (1989) 68676-dwt, Bulker usd 6.80M, China
-“Forest Princess” (1998) 51152-dwt, Woodchip usd 8.40M, unknown
DEMO -“Faith N.” (1990) 260783-dwt usd 478/ldt, Pakistan
-“Hebei Loyalty” (1987) 172810-dwt usd 477/ldt, Bangladesh
-“Lucky Star” (1984) 65767-dwt usd 465/ldt, India -“Alex D.” (1977) 52600-dwt usd 487/ldt, India
-“GC Merchant” (1977) 44895-dwt usd 439/ldt, India
-“Svilen Russev” (1982) 39407-dwt usd 473/ldt, Palistan
2. 本星期远东 2002年造二手船平均价值:
种类 油轮 干散货轮 集装箱轮 (teu)
船型 VLCC Suezmax Aframax Cape Pmax Supramax Handy ULCV Pmax Handy Fmax
吨位(万) 31 16 11 18 7..5 5 3 16000 4000 1400 750
价值(万美元) 3780 2710 1920 2690 1810 1740 1370 --- 2710 1240 870
3. Daily Summary of Baltic Exchange Dry Indices 2012.03.30
Baltic Exchange Dry Index BDI 934 (+ 4)
Baltic Exchange Capesize Index BCI 1412 (- 26)
Baltic Exchange Panamax Index BPI 1051 (+ 7)
Baltic Exchange Supramax Index BSI 1030 (- 13)
Baltic Exchange Handysize Index BHSI 565 (- 1)
4. TIMECHARTER
-“Brave Haralambros”(2009) 180000 dwt dely S’pore Spot trip via Indonesia redel China $5300 daily+$265000bb – Winning
-“Alpha Confidence” (2011) 176000 dwt dely Zhanjiang 20/25 Mar trip via EC Australia redel S’pre-Jpn range $10250 daily – cnr
-“Paolo Bottiglieri” (2010) 92500 dwt dely New Mangalore Spot trip Goa redel S’pre-Jpn range $14750 daily – cnr
-“STX Mutiara” (2011) 81117 dwt dely psg Cape of Good Hope 1/5 Apr trip via EC S.Am redel China $11750 daily – Beibu
-“Gerasimos” (1996) 70296 dwt dely Inchon 16/24 Mar trip via NoPac redel S’pre-Jpn range, $8000 daily – Sinoeast
-“Silver Mei” (1989) 68676 dwt dely Kemen Spot trip via Indonesia redel China $7000 daily – cnr
-“Caly Manx” (2009) 58089 dwt dely psg S’pore 18/20 Mar trip via Indonesia redel India.$19900 daily – Oldendorff
5. PERIOD
-“Star Breeze” (2010) 91800-dwt 18-24 months usd 12000/daily Bahri
-“Prahbu Shakti” (2009) 83690-dwt 4-6 months usd 10250/daily cnr
-“GH Fortune” (2002) 75214-dwt 4-6 months usd 10000/daily Klaveness
-“Beks Cenk” (2012) 57000-dwt 4-6 months usd 11900/daily Norden
6. ORE
-“CPO Asia” (2011) 170000/10%, Port Hedland/青島 29/30 Mar usd 7.75 fio, sc/30000sc -- FMG
-Tbn 200000/10%, Tubarao/青島 1/10 Apr usd 19.25 fio, sc/30000sc -- Swiss Maritime
-“Lake Dolphin” (2011) 160000/10%, Dampier/青島 10/15 Apr usd 7.40 fio, sc/30000sc -- Rio Tinto
-“ZOSCO Quzhou” (2010) 160000/10%, Dampier/青島 12/20 Apr usd 7.55 fio, sc/30000sc -- Rio Tinto
六：2012/03/30 船用燃油价格(每吨/usd)
来源: Bunkerworld
IFO 380 __IFO 180 MDO MGO
新加坡 725 735 1000 1010
鹿特丹 700 720 ----- 1010
休士顿 715 740 ----- 1030
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备注: tbn = to be named ldt = light d/weight ton
usd = u.s.dollar mtpa = million ton per annum
cbm =cubic meter tpa =million metric ton per annu
