Chinese buyers are said to have picked up an older, Japanese-built capesize bulker in the secondhand market.
Japanese owner Daiwa Kisen sold the 180,309-dwt Cape Laurel (built 2010) for $28m, according to brokers’ reports.
Bids were invited last week and the sale was concluded last Thursday.
The ship was built at Imabari Shipbuilding in Saijo to the yard’s own design and is fitted with a ballast water treatment system (BWTS).
It was previously on a long-term charter to K Line of Japan and the bulker is due for its next special survey and dry-docking in March.
The reported price is a little below what was achieved when a Japanese capesize was reported sold in mid-October.
Brokers reported that Shunzan Kaiun achieved around $29m when it sold the 174,757-dwt Spring Bright (built 2010) to a Chinese buyer said to be Chinaland Shipping.
The Spring Bright was built at Namura Shipbuilding, has a BWTS and is awaiting its special survey.
Chinese buyers have been harvesting elderly bulk carriers from the sale-and-purchase market this year.
Chinese interests bought 195 bulkers in the first 10 months, accounting for 24% of total deals, according to Allied QuantumSea figures.
The average age of these ships was 18 years.
During the same period last year, Chinese interests purchased 77 bulkers, accounting for 11% of the total.
Secondhand prices have mellowed a little for older capesizes over the past few weeks.
Clarksons has made a downwards adjustment to its secondhand price estimates for 15-year-old capesizes of 180,000 dwt to $28m, down from $28.5m on 1 November.
The estimate peaked this year at $29.5m in mid-April and spent much of the following months at around the $29m level.
This corresponds with a fall in estimates for one-year period rates, which reached $23,700 per day in mid-September but have since tempered to $20,000 per day, according to Clarksons.
