Heady bulker markets are spawning deals between players that are new or have been long absent from the shipping arena.
Several broking and shipbuilding sources in Greece and China are reporting that Athenian Shipping, a bulker player last known to have owned vessels eight years ago, has staged a comeback with a newbuilding order.
According to other sources, however, the order was placed by a different entity that possibly just happens to be carrying the same name.
Huanghai Shipbuilding is reportedly set to deliver a pair of 41,000-dwt open-hatch, box-shaped vessels by 2026 for about $31m each. The contract is said to include an optional vessel.
According to Clarksons’ Shipping Intelligence Network, the Shandong-based shipyard has no current Greek clients and few large bulkers on its orderbook.
The only vessels above handysize capacity that Huanghai has under construction is a pair of 62,000-dwt multipurpose units to be delivered later this year to Seacon Shipping.
One has to go back to 2017 for the last time Huanghai delivered a bulker or multipurpose vessel of the size that Athenian is said to be ordering.
As for the Greek company, the only entity known so far under its name has been absent from the shipping market for even longer.
Athenian Shipping has been without ships since the summer of 2016, when it sold its last two bulkers for further trading or demolition, as TradeWinds reported.
Managers at Athenian were not contactable for comment.
The firm’s general manager is Christianna Harbis, according to her LinkedIn page. The Greek Shipping Directory lists Christianna and Spyros Harbis as senior executives.
A source familiar with the Harbis family, however, has told TradeWinds it is not them who are behind the order.
Managers with Athenian Sea Carriers, the only other active Greek shipping company with a similar name, denied having anything to do with the order as well.
Market watchers are in any case not surprised to see little-known, inactive or new names entering or returning to the scene.
“There are many players with just one bulker or even with none at all trying to increase their exposure in shipping — either with newbuildings or through selective acquisitions in the secondhand market,” said Dimitris Roumeliotis, a researcher at Athens-based Xclusiv Shipbrokers.
