Diana Shipping has offloaded its oldest capesize bulker for $15.1m to an undisclosed unaffiliated buyer.

The New York-listed bulker owner has signed a memorandum of understanding to sell the 180,235-dwt Aliki (built 2005). Diana plans to deliver the vessel to the buyer by 28 February.

The Aliki has a market value of $15.8m and is worth $11.9m in scrap metal, according to VesselsValue.

The Marshall Islands-flagged ship was built by Imabari Shipbuilding and is on a one-year time charter with Koch Shipping that is earning $24,500 per day and is set to end on 15 February.

Capesizes that have 180,000 dwt in capacity are getting $16,000 per day on average on year-long charters as of 20 January, according to Clarksons. That is down from $17,250 per day as of 6 January.

Athens-based Diana has nine other capesizes in its fleet that were built between 2007 and 2022.

The owner’s last vessel sale was the $29.6m sale and leaseback of the 60,309-dwt Andromeda (built 2016) to an undisclosed unaffiliated buyer for 10 years in a bareboat charter deal that will allow Diana to repurchase the ship in three years.

Prior to this sale, Diana sold and leased back two capesize bulkers to two undisclosed Japanese buyers in August.

Diana sold the 180,960-dwt New Orleans and the 179,426-dwt Santa Barbara (both built 2015) for $33.2m each to two unaffiliated Japanese third parties.

The company will bareboat charter-in the vessels for eight years and may repurchase them after the third year of the deals.