Current Market Reports

As of April, Marcon had 19 inland and 21 ocean/coastal tank barges available for sale out of 676 tracked. Rampant inflation in the commercial marine industry is causing all costs in the tank barge sector to rapidly rise. Oil prices have soared since the February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and looks to continue. Newbuilding costs in the US are up roughly 40%-50% from November 2021 to March 2022, having an immediate effect on newbuilding market demand, while boosting the demand for working / certified tonnage in the US petroleum barging market. Currently the inland market has high utilization rates due to demand exceeding supply, whereas the coastal market is lagging with excess tonnage languishing on the market.

In our March 2022 offshore market report, Marcon reports 529 supply, tug supply, crew, fast supply and pilot boats officially on the market for sale out of 4,149 tracked worldwide. While we only completed 10 sales and charters in 2021, we ended first quarter 2022 with eight sales and several more pending. In the market, we see the number of OSVs available for sale decrease, while recently enquiries for vessels has increased. This has led to sellers' prices increasing, even between our initial and follow-up enquiries. The market is tight, with uncertainty still prevalent given the Ukrainian war, new COVID-19 variants and resulting impacts on the global economies.

In December 2021, Marcon reported 39 push boats officially on the market for sale out of 783 tracked. This is down 40 (50.63%) from one year ago in November 2020 and 27 (40.91%) from November 2016. The inland market continued to improve during the 4th quarter of 2021, despite some headwinds. Overall 2022 is looking to be a strong year for inland operators. Although demand is strong for inland push boats, second hand supply continues to be very limited, therefore sales of push boats continue to be few and far between.

In November, Marcon reported 475 tugs officially on the market for sale out of 5,221 tracked. This is down 22.89% from one year ago, and down 27.48% from five years ago. Marcon closed ten sales and one charter in 2021. Many of the 2020 deals were well in the works before the Covid-19 situation developed and oil prices crashed. Throughout most of 2020 and early 2021, the market was extremely slow both domestically and world-wide. We continue to see a pickup in inquiries and inspections and have multiple sales pending at this time as business rebounds.