Diamlemos Shipping has sold a tanker to German interests, continuing the fleet reduction that began after the Diamantis Lemos family behind the company split their business interests to go their different ways.
The 72,300-dwt product tanker Archangelos Gabriel (built 2005) has been sold to clients of Hamburg’s Chemikalien Seetransport (CST), in whose fleet it is already trading as Chemtrans Polaris, according to broker reports and online directories.
The Hudong Zhonghua-built vessel changed hands for about $7m. Diamlemos and CST probably concluded the deal earlier this year. Neither company responded to a request for comment.
Piraeus-based Diamlemos circulated the Archangelos Gabriel for sale as early as last November. Its departure leaves the company with just three units — the tanker sistership Despina (built 2006) and two panamax bulkers.
The Diamlemos fleet is a shadow of what it was a few years ago, when it numbered nearly 10 vessels. Its shrinking in recent years coincided with a split of the business interests behind it.
Diamlemos was set up in the 1980s as the Piraeus affiliate of Diamantis Lemos Ltd, a traditional outfit founded after World War II by London Greek owner Diamantis Lemos.
Dissolved
After he died in 1961, the company continued business under his sons, Mark and John, and his son-in-law, Anastasios Diamantaras.
That structure, however, seems to have dissolved recently: two panamax bulkers, the 74,700-dwt Angelic Power and 75,000-dwt Angelic Glory (both built 2002), emerged this year with Panthalassa Maritime — an Athens-based company that shares an address and telephone number with shipmanagement company JDL Holdings.
JDL Holdings was registered in Panama by John Lemos and his descendants, according to corporate registry data. Company managers did not respond to a request for comment to clarify its relation to Diamlemos.
A ship auction in 2018 showed that the split was preceded by friction with lenders. A Diamantis Lemos panamax, the 74,700-dwt Angelic Grace (built 2001), was arrested that year, over a $3.26m debt that originated with the Royal Bank of Scotland, and was then transferred to Japan’s Orix Group.
The ship was sold at auction in October 2018 to clients of Greece’s Seadar Shipmanagement at the reserve price of $5.5m.
Diamantis Lemos Ltd was dissolved in March this year, UK Company House data shows.
