Genco Shipping & Trading is reported to have sold a 16-year-old capesize bulker in an active sale-and-purchase market, which one broking house described as offering buyers their pick of a rich harvest of secondhand vessels.
The 169,000-dwt Genco Hadrian (built 2008) fetched $25m, brokers in the US and UK reported.
The figure reflects a market in which capesizes of this vintage hold much of the value gains seen in the first half of the year.
The price tag is slightly below the $26.3m estimate for ships of its characteristics by VesselsValue and the $27.9m prediction by Maritime Strategies International’s MSI Horizon.
The Genco Hadrian, which has a scrubber, allowing it to use cheaper high-sulphur fuel oil, was constructed at the South Korean shipyard now known as HSG Sungdong Shipbuilding.
The buyer is not known. Genco did not immediately respond to TradeWinds’ request for confirmation.
The reported sale comes in an active dry bulk S&P market in which shipbroker Hartland Shipping Services estimates 80 capesizes have changed hands.
But the secondhand market’s shelves are also flush with sales candidates.
“High summer and the fruit picking season is upon us. Without any particular stimulation from the freight market, turnover remains relatively high,” UK-based Hartland said in a weekly report that included the Genco Hadrian sale.
“This market is more difficult for the sellers of ships that are marginal either by their specification or their condition. Bruised fruit is left on the bush.”
But the Genco Hadrian does not fit into that category, and Hartland said the ship spent little time on the market.
Prices for similar capesizes are holding their ground.
VesselsValue data shows that the bulker was worth $20.7m at the end of 2023 after sinking to just above $18m last summer.
Its estimated value on the platform’s index fleet of bulkers has gained 0.6% in the past month, rising 18.9% compared with this time last year.
Securities filings show that New York-listed Genco acquired the ship in 2007 in a nine-capesize deal with Metrostar Management.
The transaction valued the Genco Hadrian, which was then a newbuilding, at $100m at the time, according to VesselsValue.
The sale, if confirmed, would mean that this year John Wobensmith-led Genco has sold off all four of the Sungdong-built capesizes acquired in that deal.
