Samos Steamship is increasing its position in the open-hatch bulker market by taking a 10-year-old ship that has been operating in the Gearbulk fleet.
US sources said the Greek bulker and tanker owner has purchased the Santoku Shipping-owned 54,200-dwt Kashi Arrow (built 2009) for a fairly low $10.7m.
Gearbulk and Samos did not respond to requests for comment.
Samos is listed with a fleet of 15 tankers and 13 bulkers. It already has a sistership to the Kashi Arrow after purchasing the 52,000-dwt Shirakami (built 2008) in 2015 for $12m, before renaming it Red Jacket.
Joint venture
In June, Samos reportedly carried out its first deal in the sale-and-purchase market, taking the 182,000-dwt Global Mercator (built 2011) for $26.2m. However, the bulker is still listed in the fleet of Japan’s Nissen Kaiun.
In January, Samos took delivery of the 82,000-dwt bulker Ormos (built 2019) from Sanoyas Shipbuilding.
Gearbulk has a joint venture with Norwegian outfit Grieg Star, called G2 Ocean.
Gearbulk has a fleet of 90 open-hatch bulkers, 19 conventional bulkers and around 15 chartered ships.
