A drop in dry cargo scrapping levels saw bulker newbuilding deliveries outpace ships heading to the breakers' beaches by three to one in the first half of 2017, according to new figures from Banchero Costa.

Scrapping levels have come off during the first half of this year, with a previous study from broker Edward McIlvaney highlighting the trend.

Today, Bancosta’s latest fleet update showed that just 700,000-dwt of dry cargo tonnage left the market in June, spanning a single capesize, two panamaxes, six supramaxes and four handysize vessels.

This took the bulker demolition tally to 112 dry cargo vessels of 8.2 million deadweight, according to Bancosta’s sums, some way below the 279 aged bulkers sent for scrap in the opening six months of 2016.

By contrast, the first half of this year saw 313 new bulkers enter the market, adding 27.4m deadweight of fresh capacity, the report said. 

At the same stage in 2016, 279 new bulkers of a collective 22.6m deadweight arrived.

On the newbuilding front, Bancosta said 40 new bulkers, including 16 capesizes, were contracted in the first six months of this year.