Costamare has added impetus to its bulker expansion campaign by buying a pair of kamsarmaxes from a Greek peer who seems to have cashed out from the sector.
According to shipbrokers in Athens, the New York-listed container ship and bulker player has agreed to spend $39m en bloc on the 81,600-dwt sisterships Egyptian Mike (built 2011) and George P (built 2012).
The Chinese-built pair is due for delivery to its new owners in the first quarter of 2022, TradeWinds is told.
In a bulker market fraught with confusion and struggling for direction, it is hard to interpret the price signal sent by the putative deal.
According to VesselsValue, the two kamsarmaxes are currently worth $43.1m combined. An alternative valuation tool by online data provider Signal Ocean estimates that they are worth just $36.5m combined.
This is characteristic of the two minds that secondhand bulker players seem to be currently, as eloquently described by some analysts.
Athens-based Doric Shipbrokers said some "firm believers" think the freight market will not veer much from its recent stellar performance.
“Others, with the onset of the latest [freight rate] correction, have become less convinced and are pulling away to observe what happens next from a safe distance,” Doric added.
Firm believers
Costamare seems to be among the first category.
The Egyptian Mike and George P are the firth and sixth bulker purchases that Costamare has been linked with since last month, when the US-listed company resumed an acquisition spree that saw it scoop up 37 bulkers between May and July.
Contacted by TradeWinds, Costamare managers declined to comment on any purchase beyond the 37 bulkers their company has already confirmed buying in official announcements.
A further purchase of the Egyptian Mike and George P would mean that Costamare has decided to beef up its underweight kamsarmax portfolio.
Of the 43 bulkers that the company is known or believed to have acquired, just six are kamsarmaxes. The rest of its bulker fleet consists of two panamaxes, six ultramaxes, 13 supramaxes and 16 handysizes.
The putative sellers of the Egyptian Mike and George P, by contrast, seem to belong to the camp of those who opt to follow developments in the bulker market from a distance.
The two ships were the last ones listed with Piraeus-based Archangel Pacific.
The company was set up three years ago after principal Antoine Pappadakis split his interests from main Pappadakis outfit Kassian Maritime.
Cashing out
All five bulkers in the inaugural fleet of Archangel Pacific, plus one it acquired later from Eneti, have been sold since December last year.
Since it successfully cashed out from its ships, it is unclear how Archangel Pacific plans to go forward.
Some Greek companies that have wrapped up bulker sale campaigns, such as Diligent Holdings, have said they would resume investing in the sector when prices are low again at the start of the next cycle.
Other shipowners, such as the Tsangaris family, have turned their attention to tankers.
Managers at Archangel Pacific could not be reached for comment.
