Cyprus’ SMT Shipping is recycling one of several elderly open-hatch self-unloading bulkers that it operates for Dutch aggregates trader Bontrup.
The 42,500-dwt Bontrup Emirates (built 1986) has been sold to cash buyers for onward sale to a facility certified under the Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships, according to the latest market reports.
The vessel, which is owned by GBSMT, a joint venture between SMT and Bontrup, went for $520 per ldt, or $6.1m. The vessels are managed by SMT.
GBSMT sold 42,900-dwt sister ship Bontrup Maldives (built 1984) for green recycling at Alang last November, but the Indian recycling market at the time was stronger in terms of price, and the ship netted $540 per ldt.
The Bontrup Emirates and Bontrup Maldives were used by Bontrup on the trade from Ras al-Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates to the Maldives to supply rock armour stone to construction projects.
S&P Global’s International Ships Register indicates that with the departure of these two ships, GBSMT will have a fleet of 11 open-hatch bulk carriers dating from between 2009 and 2016.
However, VesselsValue lists SMT as owning several additional open-hatch bulkers dating from the 1980s and 1990s that are also operated for Bontrup.
Shipping sources familiar with Bontrup’s operations said it invests heavily in the maintenance of its vessels despite the physically punishing trade in which they are engaged.
SMT, which was founded in 1990 and is led by chief executive Mark Voorham, controls a fleet of 21 geared open-hatch and conventional bulk carriers, four dry bulk transshipment vessels, 16 cement carriers and a small fleet of tugs and barges. This includes the ships owned by GBSMT.
In addition, the company has a strategic partnership with Anglo-Dutch cargo ship and multipurpose group Carisbrooke.
The scrap sale of the Bontrup Emirates came in an otherwise quiet week in the ship recycling sector. The only other reported deal was the sale of Samudera Indonesia’s 3,220-cbm LPG carrier Sinar Tarakan (built 1995), which was sold to Bangladesh for $538 per ldt, or $1.16m.
