As we approach the final couple of weeks of 2018 and activity is bound to slow down in the shipping markets, ship owners seem to be zeroing in, on LNG newbuildings and dry bulk carriers from the second hand market. In its latest weekly report, in terms of newbuildings, Allied Shipbroking said that “things weren’t all that interesting this past week. New orders continued to be limited, following the same regressive pattern that we saw emerging over prior weeks. Despite the freight market recovery noted in the dry bulk sector, it hasn’t helped the newbuilding market to sustain a more stable track, with the market most probably finishing the year short of expectations for the final quarter (if the market had performed as previously thought). On the tanker front, things remained rather unchanged on w-o-w basis, with activity being subdued, and leaving the Gas sector to step up and push things further for the overall market. To sum up, given that we are now but a breath away from the year end and given that current market trends aren’t suggesting any major shift for now, we may well expect a further slowdown in activity to take hold during the remainder of the month”.