Costamare Bulkers, the dry bulk operating platform launched by US-listed Costamare Inc late last year, has doubled the size of its fleet in less than two months.
When US-listed Costamare Inc reported financial results on 8 February, it revealed that Costamare Bulkers had agreed to fix 23 vessels.
That fleet has swollen to at least 42 ships since then, according to the annual 20-F statement the company submitted to stock exchange authorities in early April. Twenty four of these bulkers have already been delivered.
Costamare Inc provided no updated fleet list for its dry bulk operating platform. Accompanying evidence, however, suggests that it continues expanding primarily in capesizes and newcastlemaxes.
The 42 vessels it chartered in have a total carrying capacity of approximately 6.46m dwt. This converts to an average of about 153,800 dwt per vessel.
In February, the last time Costamare Bulkers provided a fleet list, newcastlemaxes from John Fredriksen’s Golden Ocean, Tor Olav Troim-backed 2020 Bulkers and from Berge Bulk featured prominently in it (see table).
According to information already reported by TradeWinds, the company has since signed a big-ticket deal to charter in six newcastlemaxes from RWE Supply & Trading.
These were the Chinese-built, 211,000-dwt Shandong Happiness, Shandong Innovation, Shandong Mightiness and Shandong Prosperity, 210,800-dwt Shandong Mission (all built 2021) and 210,900-dwt Shandong Renaissance (built 2022).
In late March, London-based brokers reported that Costamare Bulkers had also fixed a capesize from Greece’s Prime Bulk and a Chinese-controlled kamsarmax.
Most of Costamare Bulkers’ fixtures are index-linked deals stretching over long periods.
Costamare Bulkers was set up largely by former staff of Oldendorff Carriers.
Operating out of Athens and Monaco, as well as through agencies in Copenhagen, Hamburg and Singapore, Costamare Bulkers charters vessels in or out, enters into contracts of affreightment, forward freight agreements and may also utilise hedging tools.
Costamare Inc owns 92.5% of the venture, has invested $100m in it and has agreed to spend up to $100m “under certain conditions”.
These figures mainly relate to amounts set aside to cover market volatility for the venture’s trading activities or eventual purchase options for the ships it employs.
Costamare Bulkers is distinct from Costamare Inc’s separately held and owned bulker fleet, which focuses on smaller handysizes, supramaxes and ultramaxes and includes just eight kamsarmaxes or panamaxes.
In its 20-F filing, Costamare Inc revealed it has recently sold two handysizes from that fleet — the 35,100-dwt Taibo (built 2011) and the 32,300-dwt Miner (built 2010).
The sale of the Taibo was agreed on 23 February and the ship is already trading with its new Norwegian owners as Vega Dablam.
The Miner, which was sold on 17 March, is now listed as Matrozos in the fleet of Greece-based Seatrans Management.
The prices for these transactions have not been disclosed. Brokers, however, have reported that the Taibo changed hands for between $10.3m and $10.5m and the Miner for $10.9m.
The sales of these two handysizes reduce Costamare Inc’s owned bulker fleet to 43 vessels. The company’s largest business remains container shipping, where it owns and operates 71 boxships.
