HMM’s thirst for modern bulker tonnage has given Densay Shipping an asset play opportunity with a seven-year old handysize.
The Dubai-based company has sold the 36,200-dwt SSI Daring (built 2017) to HMM for $26.55m, according to market sources.
Densay, which is led by shipowner Tayfun Gunerhan and his sons, had acquired the scrubber-fitted vessel in March this year for about $24m.
The Shikoku Dockyard-built ship was trading as Asian Bulker at the time, in the fleet of Danish owner Lauritzen Bulkers.
The SSI Daring is the second ship Densay has sold to HMM since the South Korean liner company began piling into bulkers earlier this year.
As TradeWinds has reported, HMM spent $32.4m in May on Densay’s 63,600-dwt SSI Privilege (built 2019), which is set to be delivered in September.
HMM’s two purchases from Densay are a small part of a wider expansion campaign spanning eight bulkers and a total investment of about $270m.
Its reported acquisitions consist of one newcastlemax, two kamsarmaxes, two ultramaxes and three handysizes, all built between 2016 and 2019.
In an email to TradeWinds last week, an executive said that although he could not disclose specific contractual details on the deals, HMM was “reviewing different secondhand bulkers” as it explores “various opportunities to expand and diversify … [its] fleet portfolio”.
State-controlled HMM announced in April, after a privatisation plan fell through, that it would extensively increase its container ship and dry cargo fleet by the end of this decade.
Handysizes galore in S&P market
There is steady interest for handysizes in the secondhand market.
Among the most noteworthy deal reported by brokers in that segment is the sale of a 10-year-old sister ship pair built at Qingshan Shipyard in China.
Clients of Lago Chartering, a little-known player based in the United Arab Emirates, are widely reported to be divesting the 37,700-dwt Lago di Cancano and Lago di Como (both built 2014) to undisclosed buyers for between $36.5 and $38m in total.
Moving on to older units, Turkish buyers are believed to be behind a $17.1m deal for the 37,100-dwt Coreleader OL (built 2012) — a vessel currently in the fleet of Taiwan’s OceanLance Maritime.
