The Foremost Group has sold at least one capesize and a newcastlemax on the secondhand market, adding fuel to a sale-and-purchase revival for such vessels that began last week.
The sales to Greece’s Danaos Corp and Singapore’s Winning Shipping could even be just a fraction of a wider divestment drive, as brokers link the Chao family company to a total of five sales of capesizes and newcastlemaxes.
The Foremost sales drive is indicative of a burst in capesize dealmaking, which had been dormant over much of January, as TradeWinds reported.
Shipping executives say that Greece’s Danaos Shipping is spending more than $26m to lay its hands on Foremost’s 176,500-dwt Guo May (built 2011) — a Chinese-built vessel that is among the four oldest units in the group’s fleet of about 30 newcastlemaxes, capesizes and kamsarmaxes.
A source close to Winning Shipping is linking the company to a separate deal for another Foremost ship — the 206,100-dwt newcastlemax Qing May (built 2012). Brokers suggested that the vessel changed hands for about $36.5m but TradeWinds understands the actual price was much lower, at about $33.5m.
Foremost, which does not discuss commercial transactions, may have been selling other, similar ships as well.
One of them, according to US brokers, is the 206,000-dwt Lan May (built 2011).
The same is said about the 176,600-dwt Yue May and 176,400-dwt Zhong May (both built 2011), which have reportedly been snapped up by undisclosed European buyers for $27m each.
All five ships mentioned above have one thing in common: they are the oldest units in the Foremost fleet and all of them have been built at Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding.
The sale of at least some of these five ships would fit neatly into a fleet renewal narrative, following Foremost’s recent order of four modern kamsarmax newbuildings.
As TradeWinds reported on 25 January, the James Chao-controlled company is believed to have inked four such vessels at China’s Chengxi Shipyard in what marks its first-ever order for methanol dual-fuelled bulkers.
The sales to Danaos and Winning are also in line with the known expansion course of these two companies.
The Guo May is the eighth Chinese-built capesize that Danaos — a traditional container ship player — has acquired since breaking into the bulker business in July last year.
As for Winning, TradeWinds reported on 15 January that the company spent about $54.5m to widen its footprint with the purchase of Bocimar’s 206,300-dwt Mineral Qingdao (built 2020).
The Mineral Qingdao transaction marked the final reported capesize deal for over two weeks. Deal-making resumed at the end of January with the $24.1m acquisition of Golden Union’s 180,100-dwt Royal Iole (built in 2009) by a Chinese buyer.
Even more deals have surfaced since. As TradeWinds reported, Greece’s Thenamaris obtained for about $26m the 177,800-dwt Seamate (built 2010).
US brokers subsequently identified China’s Agricore Shipping as the buyer. Agricore is already known to have spent about $20m in December to buy Bocimar’s 178,100-dwt Mineral Ningbo (renamed ASL Polaris, built 2009).
Another capesize deal was confirmed on 2 February, when Oslo-listed Jinhui Shipping & Transportation disclosed buying Hsin Chien Marine’s 181,300-dwt New Delight (built 2012) for $30.95m.
Irene Ang and Eric Martin contributed to this article
