Shanghai-listed China Merchants Energy Shipping (CMES) has sold a fourth bulk carrier within a month in its continued efforts to dispose of non-eco ships.
The main shipping subsidiary of state-backed China Merchants Group said on Friday that it agreed to sell the 31,785-dwt Great Reward (built 2011) to Dalian Trawind International Ship Management.
The sale price is CNY 86.1m ($13.3m). VesselsValue estimates the ship is worth about $11m.
CMES said the handysize bulker — built by state yard CSSC Guangzhou Huangpu Shipbuilding — is a non-eco ship.
In July, the company sold the 12,497-dwt CSC Rui Hai and CSC Xin Hai (both built 2012) to StarOcean Marine and the 31,766-dwt Great Resource (built 2010) to Costamare.
None of the four vessels are fitted with scrubbers. The handysize ships are installed with ballast water treatment systems, while the smaller ones are not.
Following the sales of those non-eco ships, CMES is now having a “slightly smaller” owned bulker fleet, according to the company.
“But we have been replenishing our capacity by chartering in ships, and our overall operating fleet is actually larger,” said CMES in an exchange filing, without providing detailed figures.
The company is also due to take delivery of four multipurpose vessels from China Merchants Jinling Shipyard (Nanjing) in 2022.
“With those newbuildings we will have more owned dry bulk shipping capacity. We are disposing of our non-core assets as planned, so our bulker operations are not affected by recent sales,” CMES said.
“We are in fact more focusing on the segments where we have advantages, so we can become more specialised and enhance our profitability in a sustainable way.”
The company has been selling some of the oldest ships in its fleet in recent quarters, having taken over many shipping assets from former subsidiaries of Sinotrans & CSC.
In 2017, China Merchants Group absorbed Sinotrans & CSC to create China’s second-largest shipping group.
CMES sold the 14,500-dwt CSC Zhong Hai (built 2005) to British Virgin Islands-registered YHSL for CNY 35.8m this June.
The company reported a net profit of CNY 382m between January and March, down from CNY 1.27bn during the first quarter of last year.
It is due to release its first-half results on 26 August.
