Of the 13,562 vessels and 3,677 barges that Marcon tracked as of end May 2020, 5,184 are tugs with 617 officially on the market for sale worldwide, up 83 or 15.54% from one year ago, May 2019, but down 5 or 0.80% from May 2015. 39.47% of foreign and 93.75% of U.S. tugboats for sale are direct from Owners. 167 or 27.07% of the tugs worldwide, primarily foreign flagged, were built within the last 10 years, are newbuilding re-sales or currently under construction - compared to 30.71% one year ago and 34.81% five years ago. 84 (13.61%) are over 50 years of age. Nine have no age listed. The oldest tug Marcon currently has listed was built in 1912 (rebuilt 1999) and was originally built to dory-fish halibut in the Pacific Northwest. This "old lady" is balanced by ten newbuildings between 800BHP and 6,770BHP scheduled for delivery in 2020. Two newbuildings are azimuthing and ten traditional twin screw tugs.

Marcon's Market Comments

The majority of tugs Marcon tracks for sale as of this report are in the US with 128 tugs officially on the market (same one year ago), followed by 118 in Southeast Asia (96), 90 in the Mediterranean (70), Far East with 69 (42), 60 in Europe (47), Mid-East with 56 (58), 26 in Latin America (36), 20 in the South Pacific (10), 16 each in the Caribbean (21) and where location unstated (12), 13 in Africa (7), 3 in Canada (2) and 2 in Southwest Asia (5). Where machinery is known, CAT diesels power 153 or 25% of the tugs listed for sale. This is followed by 79 vessels with EMDs, 69 Yanmar, 65 Cummins, 56 Niigata, 29 Wartsila, 20 Mitsubishi and 17 GM/DD powered tugs. 122 tugs are powered by machinery from other manufacturers from ABC to Zibo with two Fairbanks Morse boats still on the market.

Five years ago, 34.81% of tugs for sale worldwide, primarily foreign flag, were built within the previous 10 years compared to 27.07% today. Five years ago, 10.44% of the tugs on the market were 50+ years old compared to 13.61% today. At that time, Marcon had zero tugs older than 75 years available whereas today there are six. The average age of all tugs that Marcon has for sale worldwide remains in the 25 - 26 year old range (1994 build date now vs 1990 in 2014). Southeast Asia had the largest selection of tugs listed in 2015 with 127 available (20.1%) which were tracked by Marcon. This was followed by 118 in the United States (18.7%), Far East 92 (14.6%), 64 in Europe (10.1%), Mediterranean 54 (8.5%), 51 in the Mid East (8.1%), South Pacific 31 (4.9%), 27 Latin America (4.3%), 19 Africa (3.0%), 15 (2.4%) each in the Caribbean or where location is unknown, 14 Canada (2.2%) and 5 in Southwest Asia (0.8%).

Looking at tugs for sale worldwide, conventional twin screw tugs still prevail with 379 (61.4%) available. These are followed by 140 azimuthing (22.7%), 68 single-screw (11.0%), 19 Voith Schneider tractors (3.1%) and 11 triple screw (1.8%). As a comparison and demonstrating the trend in propulsion, five years ago 22.3% of the 632 tugs for sale were single screw, 54.4% twin screw, 20.3% azimuthing and 2.5% VS tractor tugs. The increase in ASD tugs and the decrease in single screw tugs will continue as ASDs continue to become a standard in the industry, while single screw tugs have been mostly relegated to nearly zero commercial work, except in certain specific cases. It is always difficult to get a precise figure related to the scrapping rates of tugs, but it’s not an outrageous prediction to assume that these will be mostly older single and twin screw units. It is noted that Sea-Web reports 1,544 tugs worldwide scuttled, broken up or to be broken up world-wide. This is up 2.25% from May 2019's 1,510, despite scrap prices falling dramatically during that period.

Marcon's database shows only five fewer tugs which are officially for sale than five years ago in May 2015, however, there were shifts when looking at horsepower and age breakdown. There are 55 fewer tugs are today listed in the 2-3,000HP range with average age decreasing from 38 to 35 years. The 3-4,000HP range gained 34 tugs while their average age decreased from 23 to 22 years. Under 1,000HP tugs decreased by 24 with a three year decrease in age to 35 years. 7-8,000HP tugs for sale increased by 14 boats from five years ago, while their average age increased from 26 to 37 years. Twelve more tugs are showing as available in the 6-7,000HP range (with the same 17 years average age), nine more 4-5,000BHP range (average age 22 vs 23 years), and eight more 5-6,000HP (average age 17 vs 22 years). In the over 9,000BHP range there are four more candidates to offer, versus none listed five years ago (average age running at 16 years), while just shy of this level there are four fewer 8-9,000HP range (average age 24 vs 11 years.

Marcon ended second quarter 2020 with 16 sales completed, which involved many deals which were well in the works before the Covid-19 situation developed. Since that time, the market has been extremely slow, which we see reflected across the board both domestically and world-wide. In 2019, Marcon completed 27 sales, tows and charters. 2018 shows how the market reflected our overall activity has declined with 41 sales, tows and charters recorded at that time. Marcon recorded the sale of four U.S.-flagged tugs so far this year with an average age of 44 years. Tug condition and specific circumstances of the sale / purchase were driving factors behind each of these sales, and sale price numbers reflected this (older vessels being on the low end in general). In 2019, we sold a total of eight tugs with average age of 37 years. This was comprised of all U.S.-flagged tugs.

 

Commercial Marine Brokers since 1981