Angelakos (Hellas) has carried out a demolition sale of a 19-year-old panamax bulker with a chequered history, while bringing to completion a newbuilding programme that sees it adding four modern kamsarmaxes to its fleet.
The ultimate buyers of the 74,100-dwt panamax Hispania Graeca (built 2001) remain unknown but several brokers reported that the vessel was sold earlier this month "as is" at $190 per ldt, or $1.9m in total.
That is far below current scrap prices, which reached up to about $350 per ldt last week in Pakistan, currently the hottest market for demolition activity.
Managers at Angelakos were not available to comment on reports that the Hispania Graeca fetched such a low price because it is in damaged condition in South Africa and must be towed to its ultimate destination.
The vessel has been at Cape Town since last autumn, when it arrived there for repairs and became embroiled in a commercial dispute with a major Chinese agricultural processor.
As TradeWinds reported, Tianjin-based Jiusan Group was seeking damages from Angelakos in the US after a shipment of soybeans on board the Hispania Graeca went awry amid engine issues.
Jiusan was struggling to source soybeans in 2018, as tariffs in the US-China trade war compromised 40% of the 8m tonnes it imports each year.
The progress or outcome of the dispute remains unclear. Two Angelakos ships that Jiusan moved to arrest when the row broke out, however, are currently trading normally.
Traditional Greek owner Angelakos also completed without a glitch a newbuilding programme in China this year. The Athens-based company took delivery of four kamsarmax newbuildings from Jiangsu New Yangzijiang Shipbuilding.
The 82,000-dwt Aristoteles Graecia, Socrates Graecia, Sophocles Graecia and Euripides Graecia (all built 2020) are named after ancient Greek philosophers or tragedy playwrights.
These latest additions and the scrap sale of the Hispania Graeca bring the Angelakos (Hellas) fleet to 19 bulkers — all but one are panamaxes or kamsarmaxes. On top of that, affiliated company Axion Energy is managing two aframax tankers.
