Relatively uninspiring freight rates have done little to dampen the appetite for capesizes. A lot of sales have been reported in the secondhand market in recent weeks.
Some of the transactions have already been confirmed.
The oldest bulker of Greece’s Enterprises Shipping & Trading has left the Restis family company’s fleet.
The 171,300-dwt Victorius (built 2004) is already listed under the management of Acheon Akti, a Cyprus-based entity, under its new name Platos.
Brokers had reported the South Korean-built Victorius as sold earlier this month, in a $34m en-bloc deal with United Arab Emirates-based buyers alongside sister ship Olympius (built 2004).
The price of $17m for each of the two ships seems high, considering that VesselsValue estimates they are worth less than $15m each.
At least in the case of the Victorius, the price probably takes into consideration that it changed hands after passing a special survey.
Even disregarding such factors, however, bulker values remain at elevated levels.
Analysts at Athens-based bulker specialist Doric Shipbrokers see three factors at play here.
First, steep newbuilding prices have allowed secondhand ships to retain value, it wrote in a report published on 19 May.
Second, as newbuilding orders are “not yet abundant”, some owners expect modest fleet growth will sustain secondhand prices.
Third, scrap prices are rising as well, which exerts further upward force on secondhand prices, Doric analysts added.
However, some market participants feel current prices are not warranted by bulkers’ current earnings.
Fine balance
The market is therefore at such a fine balance that price-finding is difficult and several deals are concluded just to become unwound afterwards.
It is not immediately clear if that will be the fate of several other capesizes and newcastlemaxes reported as changing hands recently.
Companies involved in these deals have not immediately responded to TradeWinds to comment on the purported transactions.
In one of them, Bocimar is said to be cashing in about $23.5m from the sale to undisclosed buyers of the 178,100-dwt Mineral Ningbo (built 2009).
According to available records, this would be Bocimar’s first capesize sale on the secondhand market since autumn last year.
A sister ship to the Chinese-built Mineral Ningbo is reported sold as well. As could be expected for the one-year age difference between the two, US-based Foremost Maritime is believed to be receiving $25.5m for the Bao May (built 2010).
Moving down another notch in the age scale, Marinsa Denizcilik is getting $27.25m for the 180,500-dwt Densa Cobra (built 2011), built in South Korea.
Marinsa, which was previously known as Densa Shipping, has been gradually reducing its mixed fleet in recent years.
A sale of the Densa Cobra would leave the low-profile Turkish player with one capesize, the 179,200-dwt Densa Shark (built 2012).
Another player in the habit of shaking out its oldest capesizes is Singapore’s Berge Bulk.
The secretive company has been mostly selling such vessels for demolition in recent years. This time, however, it seems to have found secondhand buyers for its second-oldest ship.
US brokers reported the 177,300-dwt Berge Cristobal (built 2003) as sold to undisclosed buyers for $13.3m.
Some of the interest for capesizes around that age is coming from the Far East. Unidentified Chinese players are credited with two such purchases.
The first is the 177,600-dwt Zheng Yuan (built 2002), which Fujian Ocean Shipping is reportedly selling to Chinese peers for $13m.
The second is the 180,300-dwt Tasik Melati (built 2004), which is believed to have cost $15.5m.
The Koyo Dockyard-built ship is currently managed by Japan’s K Line. The S&P Global database, however, lists the ship as under the actual ownership of Malaysia’s Halim Mazmin Group, which has had a joint venture with K Line since 2015.
The Tasik Melati is the only capesize Halim Mazmin is listed with. Its sale would leave it with one other bulk carrier, the 76,300-dwt Tasik Sakura (built 2011).
In the opaque market of Japan-based ore carriers, the 207,900-dwt Cape Eternity (built 2011) is said to be changing hands but no information has so far emerged on buyers or price.
