A conspicuously large number of Greek owners are said to be selling supramaxes and ultramaxes between five and 10 years old, in a flurry of deals that go hand in hand with upbeat developments in the freight market.

Supramaxes have been the best-performing bulker type year-on-year, according to some indicators. The Baltic Supramax Index (BSI) climbed for nine consecutive sessions through to 15 February to stand 85% above their same-date level in 2021.

Ivy Shipping payday may have arrived with sale of bulker
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It is not perhaps surprising, therefore, to see an unusually large share of supramax deals populating broker reports. The most eye-catching among them are by firms benefiting from higher values to realise asset-play profits.

In one of them, asset play outfit Ivy Shipping reportedly sold the 55,900-dwt Ivy Unicorn (built 2011) to Norwegian interests for $20.5m.

Managers at the Paris Kassidocostas-controlled company did not respond to a request for comment. A deal at those levels, however, would confirm that secondhand markets have reversed declines suffered during a slowdown last month to return to headier levels seen in 2021.

In September, Ivy Shipping sold the sistership Ivy Delta (renamed Imke Selmer, built 2011) to Germany’s Oskar Wehr for $20.4m. Some brokers suggest that the Ivy Unicorn has followed a similar path with a sale to Norway’s Selmer Bulker — a company in which Oskar Wehr has a stake.

Revived interest also helped clients of Athens-based Tiara Navigation sell their second ship in as many months.

A few weeks after the little-known company sold its oldest vessel, the 53,500-dwt Sparrow (built 2005), to unknown interests for $13.5m, it divested the much younger, 56,500-dwt Gravity (built 2014) for $16.8m to Chinese buyers.

The sales leave Tiara, a successor of defunct Edem Marine, with a single bulker.

Greek outfits Target Marine and Nereus Shipping are even said to have raised $92m between them in two deals.CM Lemos-linked Nereus reportedly sold the 58,500-dwt Ionic and Doric (both built 2013) to Greek peers for $21m each. Target Marine is said to have divested the Chinese-built, 63,000-dwt Andros Island and Syros Island (both built 2016) for $25m each.

Nereus and Target Marine managers did not respond to a request for comment.