Hong Kong-based Caravel Group has upped its shipowning exposure in containerships and dry bulk this year with under-the-radar transactions.
Chief operating officer Angad Banga told TradeWinds that the company increased its stake in containership owner Mandarin Shipping via a secondary purchase of shares.
Tim Huxley and William Fairclough-led Mandarin owns five 1,730-teu Zhejiang Ouhua-built feeder container sisterships delivered in 2016 and 2017.
Mandarin Shipping's shareholders were formerly Swire, Wah Kwong Maritime Transport Holdings, Caravel Group, and founder Huxley. Banga declined to comment on the current shareholding beyond saying Caravel became the largest shareholder after acquiring a stake from Seacor Holdings.
Financial filings by Seacor connected it to a stake in Mandarin Containers, the affiliate of Mandarin Shipping that owns the five feeder vessels."
Over the past year, the value of Mandarin Shipping's fleet has grown from about $83m to $200m, according to VesselsValue.
Banga also confirmed to TradeWinds that Caravel took delivery in September of the 61,300-dwt ultramax bulker Africa Explorer (ex-White Hawk, built 2012), which was purchased in the summer from Triton Navigation at a reported price of $21.3m.
That brings the owned fleet of Caravel to three, which includes two Chinese-built kamsarmaxes purchased in 2018.
The new acquisition and one of the kamsarmaxes are reportedly on charter to Norden and the other kamsarmax to Oldendorff. Formerly a substantial dry bulk operator, Caravel is only occasionally seen taking ships on trip time charter of late.
Commodities trader and dry bulk shipowner and operator Caravel Group was founded by chairman and chief executive Harry Banga. Its major activity in shipping is currently Kishore Rajvanshy-led third-party ship manager Fleet Management.
Banga's outlook for the dry bulk market in the coming year is positive but strengthened by limits on the growth of ship supply rather than by a sustained boom in the demand for goods.
"The positive is that seaborne trade volumes are higher than pre-pandemic levels — all cargo groups saw rapidly rising volumes," Banga told TradeWinds.
Although it is possible that trade growth momentum peaked in the first half of 2021, Caravel believes demand will remain strong for the next eight to 12 months. Supply chain inefficiencies as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic should help support the market.
"We are also seeing how investment growth in China is waning as policymakers taper the stimulus and global consumption patterns are turning away from goods and back towards services as major markets such as the US see Covid restrictions ease and people slowly returning to ‘normal’ life," he said.
But he painted a less ambiguous picture of the supply side, where an increased volume of newbuilding deals by optimistic shipowners will not be enough to overbuild the market.
"We expect to see overall fleet growth decrease as lengthy delivery times mean deliveries will slow in the coming year," Banga said.
Caravel believes that adds up to strong vessel earnings continuing. Banga said the company estimates that the increase in seaborne trade will outweigh the growth in fleet over the next year.
"The booming demand that delivered strong earnings in the dry bulk sector over the last year will continue to be driven by the restricted supply," he said.
"It’s impossible to predict or prepare for the kind of volatility that may lie ahead," Banga said.
But he expressed confidence that Caravel's team would continue to manage the risk well.
