Two newcastlemaxes owned by 2020 Bulkers will continue their charters to Koch for another year.
The 208,400-dwt Bulk Santiago and Bulk Seoul (both built 2019) will remain contracted to the commodity trader for an extra 10 to 13 months from 1 February.
The pair have been chartered to Koch since late 2019 and are earning an index-linked rate, plus a premium to reflect the newcastlemaxes' larger capacity compared with conventional capesize bulkers.
The contracts also give the shipowner a share of profits from the vessels' scrubbers, which generated about $2,100 per day on average in October.
2020 Bulkers said the contracts also include options to convert the time charters to fixed-rate employment "from time to time", based on the prevailing forward freight agreement curve.
Employment
Six of 2020 Bulkers' vessels are on charter to Koch Logistics and the other two are contracted to Glencore.
Its four vessels that are trading on index-linked time charters during October earned a gross day rate of about $82,500, including average daily scrubber benefits.
In contrast, the four vessels that were on fixed-rate contracts during October had gross earnings of $43,000 per day, including scrubber-related profits.
All this meant that 2020 Bulkers' vessels had gross time-charter equivalent earnings of about $61,100 per day on average during October.
This is slightly behind the Baltic Exchange's 5TC basket rate, the weighted average of spot rates across five key routes, which averaged $64,669 per day last month.
However, earnings in October were slightly impacted by the 208,400-dwt Bulk Shenzhen (built 2020), which received $35,000 per day in off-hire insurance for eight days during the month.
The ship collided with a Reuben Brothers-owned bulker in August and had to undergo repairs in China, but resumed operations on 9 October.
Fearnleys Research on Wednesday estimated one-year period rates of $29,000 per day for a newcastlemax, compared with $23,000 per day for a 180,000-dwt capesize.
2020 Bulkers posted its biggest ever quarterly profit and its largest dividend to shareholders for the third quarter of 2021, on the back of rising freight rates.
The shipowner reported net income of $21.6m for the three-month period, equivalent to 98 cents in earnings per share. This is up from $4 .8m in the third quarter of 2020.
The firm has declared total cash distributions of $0.97 per share for the months of July, August and September.
It has declared dividends or cash distributions for 15 consecutive months.
