China Changjiang National Shipping(Group) Corp has purchased two of its biggest bulkers yet, emerging as the owner of a supramax duo that Turkey's Densay Shipping sold around the turn of the year.
Equasis shows the 57,000-dwt sisterships SSI Invincible and SSI Expedition (both built 2010) are now under the control of the Wuhan-based company. The SSI Invincible has been renamed Chang Hang Zhuo Hai.
Changjiang National is a unit of China's vast China Merchants Group. Its website offers no details on its fleet, and online reference sources diverge on the ships they list with the company.
According to IHS Markit, it has a mixed fleet of about 40 vessels and the SSI Invincible and SSI Expedition are the biggest bulkers it currently manages.
Juicy asset plays
The deal confirms Densay's growing reputation for having a nose for juicy asset plays.
The company has reaped hefty profits from buying and selling ships over the past two-and-a-half years, estimated by TradeWinds to total about $15m.
Densay is believed to have sold the SSI Invincible and SSI Expedition to Changjiang National for about $24.5m in total.
Istanbul-based Densay purchased the pair in October 2016 for just $13.5m, in what was then described as a bank-driven deal.
The ships were trading in the fleet of South Korea’s Chang Myung Shipping as the CS Azalea and CS Champ at the time.
Another ship that Densay flipped for a handsome profit last year was the 32,600-dwt SSI Spring (built 2007).
Taylor Maritime spent $10.5m in September 2018 to buy the ship, which has been renamed Cinch.
Japanese ownership
That price was far in excess of the $6.6m that Densay paid to purchase the vessel in March 2017, when it was trading as the Campanula under Japanese ownership.
Densay, which was founded in 1992 by Tayfun Gunerhan, has been very busy in recent years, both on the sale-and-purchase front and in the newbuilding arena.
Last month, it took delivery of the 63,800-dwt ultramax newbuilding SSI Splendid (built 2019) from Jinling Shipyard. It is set to receive a sistership from the same yard later this year.
Following that delivery, Densay will be listed with 14 bulkers on the water between supramax and kamsarmax size. They were all built after 2002.
Densay seems confident it can repeat its recent asset plays. It bought another supramax last month, picking up the 56,800-dwt Naess Resolute (built 2012) from clients of Naess Ship Management for about $10m. The vessel has been renamed SSI Invincible II.
