Indonesia's Gurita Lintas Samudera denies reports suggesting that it was the buyer of a British Marine supramax bulker reported sold last week.
A senior Gurita Lintas source flatly rejects reports this week that it is behind a deal for the 53,000-dwt Grasshopper (built 2002), which shipbrokers said had been sold to the company for $9m. “We didn’t buy it,” the executive said.
Gurita Lintas has been an active buyer of dry bulk tonnage this year, which could have led to the assumption that it had bought the ship.
It is not the only Indonesian owner linked this week to a sale that ultimately did not happen. Brokers also reported that state-owned Djakarta Lloyd was buying Tokei Kaiun KK’s 55,600-dwt Leo Advance (built 2007) for $12.6m.
Although Djakarta Lloyd had negotiated for the bulker, well-placed shipbroking sources in Singapore say the deal ultimately did not go through and the Leo Advance is back on the market.
Djakarta Lloyd has been looking to buy supramax bulkers to service recently obtained domestic coal contracts of affreightment. It said earlier this year that it wanted to acquire two geared supramax bulkers and a fleet of tugs.
