Alassia NewShips Management has taken advantage of firming bulker prices amid climbing freight rates to push ahead with its fleet renewal plan by selling its only capesize.
The 176,500-dwt Cymona Iron (built 2011) was one of the oldest ships in the Athens-based company’s fleet of about 10 vessels.
Market sources say the Nicolas Hajioannou-led company is getting close to $27m from unidentified, Middle Eastern buyers.
Unadjusted for inflation, the price is about the same as Alassia paid to acquire it from Germany’s Orion Bulkers about six years ago.
The company sold another ageing ship about a year ago. The 83,000-dwt kamsarmax Cymona Gemini (renamed Aya, built 2006) went to clients of Greek peer Minoa Marine for close to $16m.
These moves are part of its long-term fleet renewal programme. Alassia revealed earlier this month its first newbuilding contract in a decade — a trio of bulkers at Oshima Shipbuilding.
Despite the company’s basic intention to be present in all bulker segments, rising ship prices have encouraged it to part ways with its ageing, only capesize.
The price of the Cymona Iron is above the $25.75m fetched earlier this month by another capesize built in the same year, the 178,500-dwt AM Gijon (built 2011).
However, direct comparisons between the two are not easy to make.
The Cymona Iron was built in China and comes equipped with a scrubber. By contrast, the AM Gijon was built in Japan, is scrubber-free and passed its special survey recently.
The mood in the secondhand market is definitely improving amid rising freight rates.
“Nowadays buyers are investing in the hope of earning in a firmer freight market,” Athens-based Doric Shipbrokers commented in its latest weekly report.
“[A few] months ago… acquisitions were made primarily because of falling asset values and prices.”
The market’s improvement reflects both traditional cyclicality in the third quarter and possibly moves by China to start replenishing its relatively low iron ore stockpiles.
The Baltic Exchange’s Capesize 5TC — a basket of spot-rate averages across five key routes — rose by nearly 7% last week to nearly $29,500 per day.
TradeWinds has already reported about how this has helped generate a steady stream of transactions lately.
Alongside the Cymona Iron, brokers are reporting that Japan’s Daiwa Kisen is getting $30m for the 181,400-dwt Frontier Brilliance (built 2013).
US brokers linked Greece’s Alberta Shipmanagement to that deal, the same company that also acquired the AM Gijon.
However, managers at the Greek company told TradeWinds that this information was wrong and that Alberta had nothing to do with the Frontier Brilliance.
In another capesize deal likely concluded earlier in the month, undisclosed interests are said to have spent $22.7m on a scrubber-fitted capesize, Noma Kaiun’s 180,200-dwt Mineral Shougang International (built 2009).
