US-listed Navios Maritime Partners has added to its tanker orderbook with an agreement for two more MR2 product carriers against a background of higher prices.
The Angeliki Frangou-led company revealed in a securities filing that a deal was struck in August to acquire two more vessels from an unrelated third party that will be built in Japan.
The yard has not been named, but the Greek shipowner said the carriers will join the fleet on bareboat charters for 10 years.
Navios Partners has the option to take over ownership at the end of year four, with other options available until the end of the terms.
If the two ships are bought at the end of the deal, the bareboat agreements reflect an implied price of $41.5m per vessel.
The implied effective interest rate is 7%.
The tankers are due in the first half of 2027.
The deal follows one struck during the second quarter for two 52,000-dwt Japanese MR2s which will also be bareboated back for 10 years.
The implied price for these was only $40.2m each, with the interest rate the same.
Delivery is set for the second half of 2026 and the first half of 2027.
The moves are part of the giant group’s large-scale fleet recycling drive with newbuildings and younger secondhand tonnage.
Also in the second quarter, the company spent $28m on the acquisition of the 81,700-dwt Navios Horizon I (built 2019), a Japanese-owned kamsarmax bulker it already had in its fleet as a chartered-in vessel.
Fleet set to grow
Navios Partners already has 10 LR tankers on order, as well as container ships.
The shipowner has 175 ships on the water or under construction.
Navios Partners maintained profit at elevated levels in the second quarter, helped by strong tanker and container ship earnings.
Net earnings were $112.3m for the period, up 13% from the previous quarter and down 5% year-on-year.
About $10m of that profitability came from the sale of four ageing vessels.
