A string of smaller bulkers that changed hands recently have emerged under the technical management of a new, secretive company based in Greece that is likely linked to Middle Eastern interests.
IHS Markit lists Olympos Shipmanagement, an outfit registered with Greek authorities last year, as technical manager of six vessels ranging in size from handysize to supramax.
That would make the company’s unknown clients one of the more consistent buyers of such tonnage since late 2019.
The first vessel to enter the Olympos fleet was the 31,800-dwt Courage (ex-Ikan Jerung, built 2009), a vessel reported sold by Japanese owners in a deal worth $9m that may have included financing by US investment giant Oaktree Capital Management.
Five more vessels followed in 2020, including the 54,200-dwt Destiny (ex-Kashi Arrow, built 2009) and the 34,400-dwt Garnet (ex-Baltic Breeze, built 2010 ), which was sold by Genco Shipping & Trading.
Olympos maintains an extremely low profile. An address in a mixed-use building in northern Athens is the only publicly available information about the company.
The building, which houses a speech therapy centre and a public relations firm, has no outward signs of Olympos or of any other shipping outfit. An attempt to reach company representatives through another resident in the building, who confirmed the existence of Olympos, produced no response.
Link with Oryx?
Two different shipping sources, one of which said he had direct contact with Olympos, said the company is affiliated with Oryx Shipping — another low-profile outfit based in Greece. Oryx did not respond to a request to comment.
Oryx's listed address is in a non-descript block of flats above a car wash in Piraeus that bears no outward signs of the company. The company's website identifies none of its owners, directors or executives.
However, Athens-based shipping sources, official records and social media posts point to the outfit having a Middle Eastern background.
A person called Luay Mallah identifies himself as the owner of Oryx in a LinkedIn post that contains no other information about the company.
Another person with the same family name, Abdul Jalil Mallah, was legal representative of Mallah Ship Management — a company registered with Greek authorities as operating out of the same Piraeus building as Oryx between 2012 and 2017, according to an official document.
The way Oryx employs its ships also points to a Middle Eastern background. Vessel trackers show about one-third of the 22 bulkers in the company's fleet list as currently employed in Yemen trades. Oryx vessels have been trading in Aden since at least 2018.
Oryx’s entire fleet consists of bulkers — from general cargo ships to supramaxes— the vast majority of which were built before 2000.
Olympos, by contrast, has a much younger vessel profile. Five of the six ships under its technical management were built between 2005 and 2009, according to IHS Markit. Only the smallest and oldest unit, the 20,000-dwt Jaguar 1 (built 2003), was trading in Yemen last month.
