Vessel Sales and the Summer Slump

Just as stock market liquidity dries up on Wall Street over the summer, with traders and hedge fund managers heading to the beach, sale and purchase activity of vessels dwindles as shipowners take some deserved time off.

Data from Clarksons Research over the past three years shows a clear drop in the number of vessels trading hands during the summer months. The biggest flurry of activity occurs in December, as the industry races to close deals before the year wraps up.

There’s an exception to every rule, of course, and just last week, the $1.05 billion fleet sale of Avance Gas' dozen Very Large Gas Carriers ("VLGC's") to BW LPG certainly bucked the summer slump trend—there were at least a few people in the office in Oslo.