Belgian shipowner CMB has cashed in on the sale of a traditional panamax boxship, in a sign that values are catching up with a rising charter market.

Its container shipowning division, Delphis, sold the 4,400-teu Robin Hunter (built 2010) to Hong Kong’s TS Lines for a reported $12.2m.

Delphis managing director Maxime Van Eecke declined to comment on the price but confirmed that the owner had completed “an opportunistic sale”.

Significant profit

The deal looks to have handed CMB a significant profit on the South Korean-built vessel, which it bought in January 2017 for $6.9m.

CMB had not been looking to sell but had been approached by Asian liner operators out to acquire their own midsize containerships.

“We’ve seen for the last six months more and more liner operators looking to invest into panamaxes, because from an entry point of view, the values of today are very attractive,” Van Eecke said.

CMB has an established working relationship with TS Lines, to which it already charters one of its panamaxes.

In July, it fixed the 4,259-teu Harrier Hunter (built 2009) with TS Lines for eight to 10 months at what was then a high rate of $13,000 per day.

In recent months, charter rates for panamax boxships have risen even higher. Twelve-month fixtures stand at about $13,695 per day, $3,000 per day higher than the same period last year, according to ConTex.

That may be feeding through to values of vessels, which slumped to about $7m in 2017.

Brokers have suggested that the firm price for the Robin Hunter was in part due to TS Lines’ wish to purchase a vessel with a MAN Energy Solutions main engine.

The 1,096-teu TS Yokohama (built 2019), which was delivered to TS Lines in November from Kyokuyo Shipyard of Japan, is also fitted with a six-cylinder MAN Energy engine.

It is the second of four containerships being built for TS Lines. The last two vessels will be ­fitted with scrubbers and are scheduled for delivery in April and July 2020.

Brokers report growing interest in the secondhand market for traditional panamax boxships.

“Everybody sees that the earnings are there. There’s an expectation that this is going to last well into 2020,” Van Eecke said.

The charter market is benefiting from a shortage of supply as many ships are taken out of circulation for scrubber retrofits. Some estimates suggest that 100 containerships are under­going retrofits.

Van Eecke expects the supply and demand situation to make 2020 a good year for traditional boxship owners, such as CMB. Supply of vessels is limited and few ships remain open for ­employment, he said.