Egypt’s National Navigation Co (NNC) unveiled itself as the buyer in a $38m deal for a kamsarmax newbuilding in its last phase of construction.
The Cairo-based owner of 12 bulkers and a container ship said on its website that it has signed a contract for an 82,000-dwt vessel to be delivered by China’s Jiangsu New Hantong Ship Heavy Industry in the first quarter of 2024.
A picture next to the post identifies the ship as the AP Lovrijenac (built 2024), which Croatia’s Atlantska Plovidba disclosed selling to undisclosed buyers earlier this month for €35m ($38.2m).
The AP Lovrijenac is part of a quartet of kamsarmax sister ship newbuildings that Atlantska contracted at the Chinese yard. The first was the AP Dubrovnik, which was delivered earlier this autumn. The remaining two are set to follow the AP Lovrijenac next year.
Managers had said they were planning to expand and renew the state-owned company’s fleet as early as 2019, just after settling a $240m debt to the National Bank of Egypt.
That promise was acted on a year later with the acquisition, worth about $20.5m, of Eneti’s 81,200-dwt SBI Parapara (renamed Wadi AlMalekat, built 2017).
NNC purchased another modern kamsarmax in June 2022 when it spent $37.8m on Norden’s 82,300-dwt Nord Lyra (renamed Wadi AlMolouk, built 2020).
The purchase of the AP Lovrijenac therefore stands firmly in a pattern of young, Chinese-built kamsarmax acquisitions.
The AP Lovrijenac will become the 13th bulker in the NNC fleet.
According to its website, the company has six kamsarmaxes, four panamaxes and two supramaxes, as well as a single container ship, the 3,013-teu Wadi Alrayan (built 2000).
The owner, founded in 1981, describes itself as Egypt’s largest maritime transport firm.
The government directly holds a 57% stake in NNC through the Company for Maritime & Land Transport.
The National Bank of Egypt, which is itself controlled by the government, has a 40% stake. The remaining 3% is held by banks and other investors.
NNC says on its website that it aims to “build, operate and enhance the Egyptian merchant fleet” as part of the state-sponsored “Egypt Sustainable Development Strategy Vision 2030”.
