Major Greek shipowner Alpha Bulkers Shipmanagement is expanding into ultramaxes with a newbuilding order for two such ships in China.
These will be the first vessels of that size class to enter the Athens-based company’s fleet.
Anna Angelicoussis-controlled Alpha Bulkers had so far built up a sizeable presence in big bulkers, from newcastlemax and capesize ships to kamsarmaxes and panamaxes.
Over the past few months, however, the company started straying into the next smallest type of vessel.
In early March, brokers linked the company to a $23.1m-to-$23.3m purchase of a supramax, the 57,800-dwt IVS Pinehurst (built 2015).
The deal represented Alpha Bulkers’ first acquisition in a year and the company confirmed it on 3 May by announcing on its website that the Tsuneishi Cebu-built vessel joined its fleet as Alpha Flame.
Alpha Bulkers is now upping its wager on similarly-sized ships with a newbuilding order in China.
Shipmanagement and broking sources in Athens are linking the company to an order for a pair of 63,600-dwt ultramaxes at Cosco Heavy Industry Zhoushan Shipyard.
Delivery of the vessels is scheduled to take place within 2025. The market sources put their cost at about $32m each.
The ships’ fuelling will be conventional and they will be built to Energy Efficiency Design Index (EEDI) Phase 3 standards. A duct and rudder bulb system will be installed to save energy.
Special characteristics
Their specification includes more interesting extras.
One of them is a GRAB-25 notation for cargo hold reinforcement against hits from lowered grabs. Additional cargo hold safety will be provided by CO2 firefighting equipment.
The vessels are also to be equipped with performance monitoring features, as well as with an extensive CCTV network of more than 20 cameras covering them from bow to stern.
Alpha Bulkers’ ultramaxes represent the company’s first newbuilding move since a resale deal two years ago to purchase two newcastlemaxes at Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding (SWS).
Both vessels, the 209,300-dwt sisterships Alpha Trophy and Alpha Treasure (both built 2022), were delivered in the first quarter of 2022.
All the moves described above bring Alpha’s bulker fleet to 37 ships on a fully delivered basis, with an average age of about nine years.
The fleet comprises two newcastlemaxes, 18 capesizes, 11 kamsarmaxes, three panamaxes, the two ultramax newbuildings and the recently acquired supramax.
Alpha Bulkers’ ultramax order emerges shortly after the company’s tanker affiliate Pantheon Tankers booked a quartet of LR2 product carriers at a separate Cosco shipbuilder — Cosco Heavy Industry Yangzhou Shipyard, which is to deliver the vessels in 2026.
Cosco Zhoushan received another ultramax newbuiding order in January from Yasa Shipping. The four ships will be delivered to the Turkish owner in the first half of 2025, as TradeWinds reported.
In March, Athens-based brokers linked Century Bulk Carriers — the bulker management outfit of Chandris (Hellas) — to another ultramax order at Cosco Zhoushan. No such deal, however, has materialised so far.
Cosco Zhoushan isn’t the only Chinese yard to be hauling in orders for ultramaxes — the modern equivalent of supramax ships, which trade more flexibly than large capesizes or newcastlemaxes.
TradeWinds reported earlier in May how Dubai-based Densay Shipping placed six ultramax orders worth close to $200m in three different shipbuilders — Jinling Shipyard, Nantong Xiangyu Shipbuilding and New Dayang Shipbuilding.
Despite these orders, the overall orderbook for such vessels is still at relatively low levels.
According to Clarksons, “handymax” bulkers under construction — defined by the London broker as ships with a capacity between 40,000 dwt and 70,000 dwt — represent 7.7% of the overall fleet in the water. They have been below the 10%-mark for more than six years.
