As noted in January's "MSR," bulker completions reached new peaks in 2010, despite extensive slippage ensuing from scheduled ship delivery dates. Even so, one consequence of last year's record level of bulker completions (78.5mdwt) was that the orderbook's size, relative to the existing fleet, fell for a second year running. By end-2010, at 251 mdwt, it equated to 47% of existing fleet supply; at end-2008, the comparable figure had been 67.4%. Despite this fall in its size, relative to the current fleet, the bulk carrier orderbook is clearly still vast by past standards. As recently as end-2006, it had totalled 79.1mdwt, and at end-2001 had been as low as 25.7 mdwt. Furthermore, at no time in 2000-2005 inclusive had the orderbook equated even to 20% of the existing fleet (and at end-2001 had represented just 9% of prevailing tonnage supply).
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