Now That the Bubble Has Burst

By Sydney P. Levine, President, SHIPPING INTELLIGENCE, INC.

Six months ago, in May 2008, I distributed a paper with the prophetic title “AFTER THE BUBBLE BURSTS, WHAT THEN?” I can’t claim that the fall in the dry bulk market happened just as I predicted, but fall it did, and we are now faced
with the aftermath.

Because the dry bulk resale market is barely operational, one of the present great unknowns is the value of ships. Fortunately, the charter market still functions, somewhat erratically, and present charter rates should correlate well with present ship values as they often have in the past.

Freight rates have long been acknowledged as the prime mover of ship values, although the correlation is sometimes obscured by differences in transaction timing -

This is only an excerpt of Now That the Bubble Has Burst

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