Turkish shipowner Manta Denizcilik has added its fourth handysize bulker in less than two years, continuing an expansion drive that has boosted its fleet to at least nine vessels.
The Istanbul-based company confirmed on its website that it had taken delivery of the 31,800-dwt Boka (built 2000).
The Hakodate Shipyard-built vessel has joined Manta’s fleet under its new name of Neva. Brokers reported it changed hands in mid-June for $6.8m, with Monaco-based Dabinovic named as the seller.
Manta is a fan of Hakodate-built ships. All four handysize vessels that the company has purchased since November 2016, at an estimated total outlay of close to $28m, were built at the Japanese yard. Manta alone accounts for almost one-third of all handysize purchases made by Turkish companies on the secondhand market over that period.
Handysize fleet
Including the Boka, Manta is now officially listing nine ships on its website. All of them are handysizes, except the 81,400-dwt panamax Cihan (built 2012), which the company ordered as a newbuilding at Sungdong Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering in South Korea.
However, VesselsValue and IHS Markit databases indicate the company could ultimately control about a dozen ships, including one LPG carrier.
Manta executives did not respond to a request for clarification before TradeWinds went to press.
Manta is a traditional Turkish owner, founded by Mecit Cetinkaya and currently controlled by his descendants.
The Boka is not the only handysize that Turkish interests have purchased recently. Brokers reported earlier this month that Denmark’s Clipper Group had sold the Chinese-built, 34,800-dwt Clipper Valour (built 2003) to an unidentified Istanbul-based player for $6.2m.
The Clipper Group, which is known to be divesting ships as part of a refinancing deal with lenders in October, declined to comment on the reported sale of the Clipper Valour.
