Private Chinese secondhand buyers have taken a plunge on relatively young tonnage in two enbloc deals despite the uncertain dry bulk market.
Sale-and-purchase brokers believe the deals show the influence of smaller Chinese leasing houses eager to build a 2020 portfolio and shake off the coronavirus-driven slowdown.
In the capesize sector, Cyprus' Intership Navigation found Chinese buyers for two sisterships, the 177,000-dwt Percival and Lancelot (both built 2010).
Brokers said Hartmann Group-controlled Intership got $17m for each vessel in an enbloc sale. The ships were built at China's New Times Shipbuilding.
Brokers were impressed by the low price and relative youth of the ships, and believe the deal is driven by lease financing.
"A deal like this is too small to interest the big leasing houses, but a lot of smaller players or more aggressive players, like Minsheng Financial Leasing, are encouraging owners to do deals, and we may see more in the second half," a Shanghai broker said.
Stimulus programme
"If Beijing announces a big stimulus programme to print money and recover from the coronavirus slowdown, the leasing companies will have cash to push lots of secondhand deals."
Some sources in the Fujian province shipowning community pointed to Hong Kong-listed, Xiamen-based Shun Yuen Enterprises Group as a likely buyer for the pair. TradeWinds reported in January that the Fujian company, previously focused on asphalt tankers, remained interested in building up its dry bulk fleet after diversifying into the sector last year.
A Shun Yuen official was not immediately available for comment.
More typical for Fujian province buyers was the purchase of two panamaxes at scrap-level prices. In a crosstown transaction, Fuzhou-based Fujian Hengfeng Shipping sold the 69,000-dwt Evermerit (built 1995) for $3.6m and 70,300-dwt Everlucky (built 1996) to Fuzhou-based Jiuzhou Star Shipping for $3.8m.
Sand for airport project
TradeWinds understands the ships will be used to carry Taiwan Straits sand to a land reclamation and construction project that will add a third runway at Hong Kong airport.
An enbloc purchase of younger-than-usual supramaxes drew speculation that the deals were financier-driven.
Greece's Soloi Inc sold two Chinese-built, Dolphin 57 supramax bulkers, the 57,100-dwt Lietta (built 2009) and Maria (built 2010), for a total of $17.5m to an unidentified owner believed to be based in Zhejiang province, as previously reported by TradeWinds.
The sisterships were built at Jinling Shipyard Jiangsu, then known as CSC Jinling. The Dolphin designs of the Shanghai Merchant Ship Design & Research Institute have been popular among foreign customers at many Chinese yards, but Chinese secondhand buyers have traditionally preferred Japanese tonnage.
TradeWinds revealed last November that Beijing-based Minsheng Financial Leasing was behind a series of sales to Chinese private buyers, including a number of sales of Dolphin 57s to Ningbo ZRich Shipping, also known as Ningbo Zerui.
Asked about the fresh enbloc deals and the company's recent S&P activity, an official of the leasing house would not comment on details.
"We are always in the S&P market, and we believe that in the first quarter many things happened that may bring good opportunities for S&P," the official said.
