The rise of industrial shipowners including iron ore miners Rio Tinto and Vale coupled with the growth of long-term contract deals between steelmakers and shipowners could squeeze the volume of charter contracts open to dry bulk shipowners.
Newbuilding statistics from British shipbroking house Clarkson show 353 capesize dry bulk cargo ships totalling almost 70.8 million deadweight tonnes are on order, of which 137 are more than 200,000 dwt.
At least 57 of these ultra large capesize vessels are directly linked to cargo-owning shipowners, including 31 that are destined to support Vale's mining operations. This number includes eight 400,000 dwt vessels ordered by South Korea's STX Pan Ocean that will be on long-term charter to Vale.
The orders include eight 205,000 dwt ships for Rio Tinto built by Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction at Subic Bay in the Philippines and a brace of similar ships for India's Tata Power at China's Beihai Shipyard.
Rizhao Steel is also having six 180,000 dwt capesize ships built at Dalian Shipbuilding and Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding.
Other industrial shipowners with ships on order include Hong Kong commodities company Noble Group, China's Baosteel, Indian steelmaker ArcelorMittal and Taiwan Power.
Shipowners such as Shanghai Time Shipping, co-owned by China Shipping (Group) and Huaneng Power International, and Japan's NS United Kaiun Kaisha, part-owned by Nippon Steel Shipping, are also closely linked to commodity end users.