With operators spilling red ink or struggling to stay above water amid poor markets for months on end, the strain has started to show at Greek dry bulk and containership companies.

Big, US-listed outfits have announced ghastly results, unseen since the market downturn of 2016. Diana Shipping, for example, took a $93m accounting impairment in the first quarter. It reflected the impact of the global economic downturn on the earnings potential of its ships.

“The main name of the game is defence,” chief strategy officer Ioannis Zafirakis told analysts on a conference call.

Diana has survived many shipping crises in the past and Zafirakis said he expects the company to do so again, helped by its conservative, staggered chartering strategy.

Still, the current crisis has a twist that sets it apart: demand for goods and services is dropping at the same time around almost the whole world.

“Too many parts of the chain have been broken ... I don’t think anyone can talk about a speedy recovery,” Zafirakis said.

For the first time since 2016, Greek dry bulk and boxship owners are putting ships into cold lay-up at their home anchorage of Elefsina.

“The only reason there’s not already 50 ships there is you can’t send crews home,” one owner told TradeWinds.

Amid this downturn, big companies such as Diana have managed to maintain dividend payments and push back outstanding loans to give themselves breathing space until markets rebound.

Containership companies, such as Costamare and Capital Product Partners, have also maintained dividends and expect major liners — their biggest clients — to stay afloat, helped by state subsidies and strong balance sheets.

Smaller Greek companies find the going much tougher — especially when burdened by debt on expensively acquired vessels. Two outfits seemingly falling under that pattern lost control of vessels to creditors in recent weeks.

Losing control

A Greek bank is said to have pulled the plug on Delta International Shipping’s 56,600-dwt bulker Menalon (built 2011). The ship reappeared in April under a new name — Cordelia B — in the fleet of Interunity Management Corp, a Greek company known to operate ships on behalf of creditors.

At the time of writing, Interunity Management was also said to be taking over the 81,200-dwt Andromache (built 2017) — a ship previously controlled by Athens-based Soloi Inc, which is also shedding vessels at an accelerating clip.

Managers at Delta International and Soloi Inc did not respond to a request for comment. Both companies ordered the ships they are losing as newbuildings, paying about $30m for each.

However, the time-honoured counter-cyclical, Greek asset-play carousel is alive and kicking. Caliber Maritime, a company founded in 2018, made its debut deal in the middle of the coronavirus crisis.

Acting on behalf of investors new to shipping, the Athens-based outfit acquired two handysize bulkers from Abu Dhabi National Oil Co for $8.9m each.

The company then turned around and fixed the two ships for an unusually long period of five years to a major commodity trader at an index-linked rate.

“If there is any time to enter the market, it is now,” a source familiar with the move said.