Low-profile Greek player White Sea Navigation has been linked to the purchase of an eight-year-old supramax.
If confirmed, the acquisition of the 58,000-dwt Requiem (built 2010) for about $12.1m would be the company’s first foray into the secondhand market as a buyer in 12 years.
White Sea boss Captain John Kehagias was unavailable to comment on Greek broker reports linking the company to the Dayang Shipbuilding-constructed ship — a vessel that would fit White Sea’s fleet profile.
Piraeus-based White Sea is currently listed as managing another three supramaxes all built at the same yard as the Requiem in 2009 and 2010.
Those three vessels have been trading with the company since they were new, as has its fourth ship, the 63,200-dwt ultramax Christos (built 2016), which was also constructed at Dayang.
A purchase of the Requiem may also serve to replace an older, slightly smaller vessel that White Sea sold for further trading in June last year. At that time, brokers reported the outfit was offloading its last veteran bulker — the 45,800-dwt Sophia (built 1996) — to Far Eastern buyers for about $4m.
Two months later, online shipping directories showed the ship was trading as Seapol Endeavour under the ownership of Indian company Seaport Logistics.
The seller of the Requiem is fellow Greek shipowner Kassian Maritime — a busy player in the market for secondhand ships.
Kassian managers had not responded to a request for comment before TradeWinds went to press.
A sale would make sense for Kassian, which acquired the Requiem from Norwegian owner Eivind Astrup in August 2015 for $12.75m — nearly the same price it is reportedly getting now for selling the ship to White Sea.
Kassian has sold five bulkers over the past two years. These sales have made space for up to nine younger vessels that the company bought in the sale and purchase market during the same period.
Its three latest, yet unconfirmed, acquisitions have taken place over the past three months.
