Norway’s Belships has agreed to acquire three new ultramax bulkers under construction in Japan for an undisclosed fee.
The Lars Christian Skarsgard-led shipowner said the 64,000-dwt ships are fully financed through time charter lease agreements, each for a period of seven up to 10 years.
The deal includes purchase options during the charters at what were described as at current market levels.
However, there is no obligation to purchase the vessels.
The identity of the yards building the ships was not disclosed. The ships are due to be delivered in late 2024, late 2025 and early 2026.
Belships is not required to make any down payment for this transaction, the shipowner said in a statement on Tuesday.
Cash breakeven for the vessels upon delivery will be about $14 000 per day, the shipowner added.
“Belships will be taking over new vessels whilst the orderbook and supply side approaches the lowest levels seen in 30 years,” the shipowner said.
“New Japanese-design ultramax bulk carriers represent the highest quality and lowest fuel consumption available in the market today.”
Skarsgard said that the company has been able to increase its fleet without investing any cash, which will therefore not affect Belships’ dividend capacity in the near future.
“We also believe the best way for us to approach the green shift is to acquire the most efficient vessels available and pair it with a financing structure which gives us a bridge to the future with optionality and flexibility,” he added.
Including announced transactions, Belships’ owned fleet will increase to 34 supramax and ultramax bulk carriers with an average age of about four years.
Belships recently reported another profitable quarter in the final three months of 2022 thanks to forward cover that proved all the more lucrative as the freight market dove during the period.
Its owned vessels earned a gross time charter equivalent rate of $22,359 per day on average during the quarter, a significant outperformance compared to the Baltic Supramax Index, which averaged $14,800 gross per day in the final quarter.
