Shipowners have spent almost $75m per day on secondhand ships in the first half of 2014 as investment increased substantially.

Owners have splashed out a collective $13.424bn in the sale-and-purchase (S&P) market during the opening six months of 2014, according to data from online platform VesselsValue.com.

This compares with $7.338bn spent during the same period of 2013, data provided to TradeWinds shows.

Secondhand