Tug Market Report - May 2021


Tug Boat May 2021 Market Report.pdf

Of the 13,613 vessels and 3,718 barges that Marcon tracked as of May 2021, 5,203 are tugs with 615 officially on the market for sale worldwide, up 81 or 15.17% from one year ago, May 2020, but down eight or 1.28% from May 2016. 93.02% of U.S. and 39.01% of foreign tugboats for sale are direct from Owners. 140 or 22.76% of the tugs worldwide, primarily foreign flagged, were built within the last 10 years, are newbuilding re-sales or currently under construction – compared to 27.07% one year ago and 32.26% five years ago. 84 (13.66%) are over 50 years of age. Ten have no age listed. The oldest tug Marcon currently has listed is a 47' LOA, 320BHP twin screw tug built in 1931 and is located in the Pacific Northwest. This "old lady" is balanced by three newbuildings between 4,050BHP and 5,630BHP scheduled for delivery in 2021. Two newbuildings are azimuthing for delivery to the Far East and Mediterranean and the third is a traditional twin screw tug for delivery to Southeast Asia.

Marcon's Market Comments

The majority of tugs Marcon tracks for sale as of this report are in the US with 125 tugs officially on the market (vs. 128 one year ago), followed by 118 in Southeast Asia (same), 74 in the Mediterranean (90), Far East with 65 (69), 64 in Europe (60), Mid-East with 59 (56), 43 in Latin America (26), 21 in the South Pacific (20), 16 in the Caribbean (same), 11 in Africa (13), 12 where location unstated (16), 6 in Canada (3) and 1 in Southwest Asia (2). Where machinery is known, CAT diesels power 168 or 28% of the tugs listed for sale. This is followed by 74 Cummins, 71 vessels with EMDs, 67 Yanmar, 50 Niigata, 18 Wartsila and 15 Mitsubishi powered tugs. 143 tugs are powered by other machinery from Akasaka to Zibo with one Fairbanks Morse tug on the market.

Five years ago, 32.26% of tugs for sale worldwide, primarily foreign flag, were built within the previous 10 years compared to 22.76% today. Five years ago, 11.24% of the tugs on the market were 50+ years old compared to 13.66% today. At that time, Marcon had two tugs older than 75 years available whereas today there are six. The average age of all tugs that Marcon has for sale worldwide today is 17 years, with 2004 average build date, compared to 25 years, 1991 average built, in May 2016. Southeast Asia had the largest selection of tugs listed in 2016 with 131 available (21.0%). This was followed by 123 in the United States (19.7%), 69 in the Mid East (11.1%), Far East 66 (10.6%), 65 in Europe (10.4%), Mediterranean 55 (8.8%), South Pacific 27 (4.3%), 21 Latin America (3.4%), 20 Africa (3.2%), 18 in the Caribbean (2.9%), 14 Canada (2.2%), 8 in Southwest Asia (1.3%) and 6 where location is unknown (1.0%).

Looking at tugs for sale worldwide, conventional twin screw tugs continue to prevail with 397 (64.6%) available. These are followed by 132 azimuthing (21.5%), 56 single-screw (9.1%), 21 Voith Schneider tractors (3.4%) and 9 triple screw (1.5%). As a comparison to demonstrate the continuing trend in propulsion, five years ago 16.5% of the 623 tugs for sale were single screw, 59.4% twin screw, 21.8% azimuthing and 1.4% VS tractor tugs. As we have been watching the past several years, ASD tugs increased their position in the market further reducing conventional twin screws, while single screw tugs have been mostly relegated to nearly zero commercial work, except in certain specific cases. While it is difficult to get a precise figure related to the scrapping rates of tugs, it's not unreasonable to assume that these will be mostly older single and twin screw units. It is noted that Sea-Web reports 1,588 tugs worldwide scuttled, broken up or to be broken up world-wide. This is up 2.77% from May 2020's 1,544. We believe this will increase over the next year as companies are dealing with the economic fallout of the COVID 19 pandemic in various sectors of the market.

Marcon's database shows eight fewer tugs officially for sale than five years ago in May 2016 with largest shifts in the lower horsepower categories. There are 54 fewer tugs are today listed in the 2-3,000HP range with average age increasing from 28 to 32 years. The 3-4,000HP range gained 40 tugs while their average age increased from 22 to 24 years. Under 1,000HP tugs decreased by 20 with a one year decrease in age to 35 years. The 4-5,000HP range increased by 12 tugs with average age rising from 17 to 19 years. Seven more tugs are showing as available in the 7-8,000HP (average age 31 vs 32 now) range, six more 6-7,000HP (average age 17 then vs 16), four fewer 1-2,000HP tugs (average age 30 vs 32 years), three more 5-6,000HP (13 vs 19 years now) and one each more in the 8-9,000HP (average age 25 then and now) and in the over 9,000HP range (average age 23 vs 17 years).

Marcon has closed six sales and one charter so far in 2021 after ending 2020 with 22 sales and charters completed. 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 are starting to see a pickup in inquiries as the world is slowly reopening and have multiple sales pending at this time. There is a long way to go. We still see a lot of uncertainty in the market and price reductions for many classes of vessels and barges have not been enough to overcome buyers' hesitancy. To date in 2021, Marcon has recorded the sale of four U.S.-flagged tugs, two 10-11 years old and two 45 years old, and two foreign-flagged tugs, one 22 and the other 40 years old. Tug condition and specific circumstances of the sale / purchase were driving factors behind each of these sales, and sale price numbers reflected this as there is no discernible pattern when comparing the sold vessels' ages to their respective sales price per BHP. In 2020, we sold a total of seven tugs with average age of 47 years, all U.S.-flagged tugs. As we have been seeing an increase in inquiries lately, we are hopeful that a rebound is emerging as more people are vaccinated, Covid-19 slowly subsides and economies turn around with strong fiscal stimulus.

 

Commercial Marine Brokers since 1981