Short Sea News Market Analysis - February 2026

Towards the end of last year, we launched our new Sea3R portal. With this, we will be providing our subscribers with regularly updated information on the European gearless coaster fleet, in addition to our current bi-annual reporting.

Each month we will provide updates to the fleet count, utilisation, freight performance and orderbook, while we will update asset values on a quarterly basis.

In gathering and analysing value data recently, an interesting observation we have made is that asset values continue on their downward trend. This can be seen in all vessel categories (3600, 5000, 6500 and 8500 DWT) that we assess.

For the most part, the pattern is similar for each category. The younger vessels, especially those five years old and below, are experiencing a reasonable degree of value protection. This is related to the currently high cost of newbuilding.

As the vessels age, the effect of diminishing values becomes more pronounced. For the 3600 and 5000 DWT categories, the vessels over 25 years of age bear the brunt of the decline. For the 6500 DWT vessels, the drop is more evenly spread.

As is often the case, the 8500 DWT vessels stand apart from the other categories somewhat. The decline is still visible, as is the degree of protection for younger vessels thanks to high building costs.

However, this is a particularly young fleet. It is popular, too, and, at the present time, there is a shortage of supply in the market. These factors help to slow the decline in values somewhat.

The reason behind the shortage in the market is that the majority of vessels in this category are built and operated in Russia. That being the case, many vessels will remain unable to trade openly in the market so long as the conflict in Ukraine continues.

In all categories, there exists a reasonable order book at present. However, progress in most cases appears to be gradual, so we do not anticipate any sudden oversupply. In fact, with many projects still to begin, it remains to be seen in some cases if construction will take place at all.

Certainly for the 8500 DWT category, with the largest number of vessels on order at Russian yards, any impact on values from newbuilds will be dampened.

There are a few reasons for the drop in asset values in the gearless coaster fleet. One of these is certainly declining freight rates over a sustained period – though there does appear to be a degree of recent settling here.

Ultimately though, the decline we see at the present time is largely the result of correction. If we consider the inflated values we saw in the fleet, across all categories post-COVID, then the reduction is not only to be expected, but also likely to continue for some time.