UK-based Lomar Shipping has gained about $20m on the resale of a wide-beam containership newbuilding.
The Libra Group subsidiary has offloaded a 5,315-teu vessel nearing completion at China’s Zhoushan Changhong International Shipyard to XT Shipping of Israel for close to $60m, according to market sources.
This compares with a price of about $40m that Lomar is believed to have paid for it after settling a dispute with the yard.
The off-market deal is said to have been speedily transacted in direct talks involving Libra chief executive George Logothetis and Udi Angel, chairman of the Haifa-based XT Group.
The ship is one of two in a series originally ordered by Eyal Ofer’s Zodiac Maritime in 2015 at Zhejiang Ouhua Shipbuilding, which went into administration in 2018.
Lomar was said to have purchased the two vessels last September for about $36.5m each.
But rising boxship values as delivery approached led to a dispute. Lomar arrested the first of the vessels — the 5,315-teu Yangtze Shanghai (built 2020) — last December and lodged a claim against Zhoushan Changhong under London Maritime Arbitrators Association rules for not honouring their contract.
Lomar and Zhoushan Changhong reach agreement
But the two parties agreed to settle earlier this year, with Lomar and the yard keeping one ship each.
Last week, John Fredriksen’s SFL Corp emerged as having bought the Yangtze Shanghai from the yard's shipowning arm, New Yangtze Navigation, for below market value.
Sources believe SFL paid about $46m as part of a package linked to other deals between charterer Maersk and the Chinese builder.
The Yangtze Shanghai remains on charter to Maersk at a low rate until September, after which it will begin a seven-year charter with the Danish giant.
Charter rates hit $70,000
The former Lomar newbuilding is scheduled to be delivered from the yard to its Israeli owner in July.
This should enable Haifa-based XT Shipping to take advantage of soaring charter rates for traditional panamax boxships.
Short-term rates hit a new high of $70,000 per day last week.
This is the rate that Germany’s Hapag-Lloyd is believed to have paid to take the 4,308-teu CMA CGM Opal (built 2009).
The vessel, controlled by Greek owner Dioryx Maritime, has been taken for an Asia-Europe round voyage.
In the period market, even older designs are securing fixtures in excess of $40,000 per day.
The 4,713-teu Zhong Liang Xin Hua Yuan (built 2002), owned by China’s Maple Leaf Shipping, was chartered to Maersk for 30 to 42 months at $42,500 per day, sources said.
More modern designs with a 38.8-metre beam, such as the Yangtze Shanghai, and its sistership will earn about $50,000 a day for a three-year period.
This is enough to secure about $1.5m per month for 36 months, or enough for XT Shipping to pay the vessel down to scrap value, charter market sources said.
