The Asiatic/Atlantic Lloyd group has taken its tally of traditional panamax boxships into double figures.
The Bunnemann family and investors are forking out a total of about $17.2m to acquire the 4,363-teu Ital Melodia and Ital Massima (both built 2007).
The acquisition brings the Singapore and Hamburg-managed company's fleet to 11 traditional panamax containerships.
The shipowner has invested heavily in the midsize containership sector in the past four years.
It was among a handful of owners that retained faith in the classic panamax sector after the opening of the new Panama Canal in 2016.
The expanded canal led some to predict a slow death for medium-size containerships that had been the workhorses of the boxship sector.
But Atlantic Lloyd managing director Nicolaus Bunnemann believes the traditional panamax boxship sector has turned into one of the more liquid sectors of the charter market.
He said that containerships of this size have found new trades to operate in, such as the intra-Asia, Asia to West Africa and the transpacific trades.
"They have found new trades that absorb quite a lot of ships, that's why we see these strong charter rates now," he said.
Well-timed
Bunnemann considers his company's latest acquisitions to be well-timed as the deal was concluded a month ago.
Since then, charter rates for boxships of this size have risen by 40% to more than $15,000 per day.
He confirmed that the two ships have been acquired by Atlantic Lloyd in partnership with investors.
Brokers report the price for the Ital Melodia and Ital Massima to be in the region of $8.6m each.
They are not expected to be delivered to Atlantic Lloyd until October and December.
Bunnemann said the ships have yet to be fixed but he remains positive about the prospects for the charter market.
"The underlying cargo volumes are pretty good," he said.
Traditional focus
He added that the company was investing in the traditional panamax vessels in preference to larger "classic" panamax boxship designs.
That includes the 5,117-teu Octavia (built 2005), which was sold by Atlantic Lloyd at the start of this year to Singapore-based Shilling Navigation.
Atlantic Lloyd acquired the latest two panamax vessels from Wisdom Marine Group of Taiwan.
Wisdom Marine paid $67m per ship in 2006. They were subsequently employed on a charter to liner operator Evergreen.
Wisdom retains just one containership — the 1,032-teu Wisdom Grace (built 1998) — in its fleet.
