Panamaxes and kamsarmaxes are all the rage in the secondhand market, pushed by Greek outfits seeking to replace ageing tonnage with larger and younger ships.
The market has been awash with talk of such deals.
In one of them, several brokers reported S Livanos outfit Alios Bulkers to be selling the Tsuneishi-built, 76,000-dwt Bellamys (built 2005) for $17m to an undisclosed Chinese buyer.
Alios chief executive George Fragos confirmed the vessel is up for sale but insisted no deal had yet materialised.
Any deal that Alios eventually achieves in today’s market would be a highly profitable one for the Greek company, which bought the ship six years ago for just $11.6m.
Alios entered kamsarmaxes in 2019 and now manages five ships.
By contrast, it has been shrinking its panamax footprint, offloading three ageing vessels over the same period. A sale of the Bellamys would leave Alios with just one panamax, the 76,000-dwt Atlantic Horizon (built 2006).
Angeliki Frangou company Navios Maritime Partners is on the same page as Alios, though on a much bigger scale.
The US-listed company, which has completed more than 20 sale-and-purchase deals this year to replace old vessels, is now said to have divested the 74,500-dwt Navios Altair I (built 2006) for $13.9m.
Navios managers declined to comment, citing their standard policy to never discuss such matters.
Spot the difference
Greek interest in kamsarmaxes is highlighted by a string of reports linking two ships owned by JP Morgan’s Defender Holding to Greek buyers.
The 81,800-dwt Peak Liberty (built 2015) is said to have been committed to US-listed Globus Maritime for about $29m. Privately-held Newport SA reportedly agreed to acquire the older sistership Peak Pegasus (built 2013) for about $27.5m.
Sources close to the Greek companies have told TradeWinds, however, that no such deals have been finalised.
The $29m price tag for the Peak Liberty offers an interesting contrast to the $32m reportedly fetched by Cobelfret in a sale of its 82,000-dwt Lowlands Nello (built 2015).
The Peak Liberty and the Lowlands Nello are the same age and were both built in Japan. They are also both equipped with a ballast water treatment system, scrubber-free and passed a special survey about the same time, in the middle of last year.
The main difference between the vessels, according to brokers, is that the Lowlands Nello has a modern eco-electronic engine, whereas the Peak Liberty has not.
Cobelfret did not respond to a request for comment.
US-listed Safe Bulkers is playing the fleet upgrade game as well, but at a more elevated level. The company has been offloading nine-year-old kamsarmaxes while ordering state-of-the-art newbuildings of about the same size in Japanese yards.
Safe Bulkers sold a pair of sisterships in May to Greek peer Costamare for $22.25m each. The company confirmed on Wednesday that it sold a third ship, the 81,600-dwt Pedhoulas Fighter (built 2012), for $23.7m.
The vessel will be delivered to its new owners in the fourth quarter. Athens-based brokers believe they are Chinese.
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