Inland Pushboat Market Report - August 2018

Following is a breakdown of pushboats Marcon has available for sale worldwide. Most of these are typical U.S. inland river units, although there are a few foreign pushboats listed from Europe, Latin America and Southeast Asia.

Market Overview

Of the 13,342 vessels (excluding barges) Marcon currently tracks, 752 are inland river pushboats with 103 officially on the market for sale (85 U.S. flag and 18 foreign flag). Ten of the boats with age listed were built within the last ten years. 57 boats are forty-five years of age or older. The oldest listed is a 1939-built 1,700BHP, 94 foot pushboat which has been rebuilt and repowered many times since and is still going strong. This is counterbalanced by a 2017-built U.S. flag 1,500HP, 56' inland river pushboat. Marcon also has 19 inland river pushboats listed for charter - 14 U.S. and five foreign.

Inland river push boats officially on the market for sale in total is 103, down 10 from our last report published in November 2017. This is four, or 3.74%, less than one year ago in August 2017 and seven, or 7.29% more than in August 2013. Composition of horsepower range in the last year has changed with the biggest shifts being four more under 1,000HP with an average age of 1973 (down from 1978 one year ago), four fewer under 2-3,000HP (average age now 1974 vs. 1978 one year ago) and two fewer 4-5,000HP (1981 vs. 1970) push boats offered. Similar as one year ago, we have three (one less) 6-7,000HP push boats with an average age of 2014 (2013), which is a sharp age contrast to the rest of our listings. As of this report, only 9.71% of the push boats available are less than 10 years old, less than the 13.08% reported one year ago but slightly higher than the 9.38% reported five years ago. In looking at overall fleet age and then by U.S.-flagged versus foreign flagged, over the past five years we can see a distinct increase in the age of push boats on the market. Five years ago, the average age of all on the market through Marcon was 39.6 years, compared to 40.4 years one year ago and 45.4 years as of this report. That is driven by older U.S.-flagged vessels going on the market, aging from 41.4 years in 2013 to 43.0 years in 2017 then to 48.7 years in 2018. Foreign flagged push boats went from 30.3 years to 27.1 years then back up to 30.4 years as of this report date.

Of the vessels listed for sale, CAT engines are most popular with machinery in 31 vessels. These are followed by GM / Detroit Diesels in 22, Cummins in 20, nine unknown, eight with EMDs, five with Mitsubishi, four John Deere and four with other engine types ranging from Deutz to Mercedes. Most of the inland river pushboats Marcon has listed for sale are located in the U.S. with 85 vessels or 82%; followed by 13 or 13% in Europe, three in the Caribbean and two in Latin America. As would be expected, this distribution is fairly consistent with one and five years ago, where 83% of pushboats were located in the U.S. Our focus is on the U.S. market, so foreign flagged vessels will be a small portion of our offerings.

Actual sale prices of all vessels and barges sold by Marcon so far in 2018 have averaged 70.69% of asking prices, compared to 2017's 81.49%. The market remains fairly flat. All commodities, which saw improvement in tonnages carried on internal U.S. waterways between March and June, started to slip in July and it is difficult to forecast how we will end the year. Even with this slip, the recent increases in coal exports, frac sand transport, and a decent grain market revived demand for hopper barges (and thus push boats). While monthly coal and coke traffic is generally at a three year high, questions remain whether there is much, if any, further growth possible.

Commercial Marine Brokers since 1981