Jinhui Shipping and Transportation is paying top dollar to acquire a 2004-built supramax bulker it emerged Tuesday.

The Oslo and Hong Kong-listed shipowner said it was paying $7.2m for the unnamed bulker, according to a regulatory filing.

Jinhui Shipping said the vessel is being acquired from Liberian-registered single-purpose company Sea Venture Navigation.

The company is reportedly controlled by Greece’s Blue Planet Shipping, according to on-line valuations platform VesselsValue.

Sea Venture Navigation owns a single vessel, the New Century-built 53,800-dwt Avra, which according to VesselsValue is only worth around $4.6m.

Jinhui Shipping said it has paid an initial deposit of $1.455m, with the balance of $5.82m set to follow on the delivery of the ship which is expected to take place by the first week of April 2021.

The ship owner said the purchase price of the vessel will be funded by the internal resources of the group.

Despite the high price, Jinhui Shipping’s senior management described the purchase price of the vessel as “highly attractive”.

Ultramax and supramax spot rates ended last week above $20,000 per day for the first time since 2010, according to a recent report by Clarkson Platou Securites.

An estimated 57 surpamaxes have changed hands in the first two months of 2021, according to Greece’s Allied Shipbroking.

Jinhui Shipping currently owns 18 dry bulk vessels which comprise two post-panamaxes and sixteen grabs fitted supramaxes.

Last year the company said it was holding back on fleet renewal due to a lack of clarity over fast-moving decarbonisation regulation.

On Monday Clarksons Platou Securities said owners of tankers, bulkers and containerships were seeing the busiest sale-and-purchase (S&P) markets in over a decade.