Golden Ocean Group has reportedly sold off its oldest panamax bulkers at a time when market indicators show declining prices in the sector.
Shipbrokers in the US and UK reported that the John Fredriksen-based bulker owner has sold the 75,500-dwt Golden Strength (built 2009) and Golden Ice (built 20089) for a total of between $30m to $31m. The siblings were built at Jiangsu Rongsheng Heavy Industries in China.
New York- and Oslo-listed Golden Ocean could not be immediately reached for comment on this story after business hours in its Oslo headquarters.
Brokers said a Greek company bought the panamaxes.
The price tag for the duo is somewhat higher than the $27.3m estimate of VesselsValue, an online valuation service that says the Golden Ice has already been renamed Ice II.
But the Golden Strength was worth an estimated $18.1m at the peak of dry bulk sale-and-prices values earlier in the summer, before the slide that brought the estimate to nearly $13.8m today.
But the last time a panamax bulker of this vintage sold hands was for a slightly lower price than the more than $15m achieved by the Golden Strength. In November, the Japanese-built, 76,500-dwt Navios Aldebaran (built 2008) changed hands for $14m, the VesselsValue data shows.
However, the Golden Strength and Golden Ice have ice-class 1C capabilities that will allow them to operate in light ice conditions.
The sale comes as VesselsValue’s bulker price index has slid 0.6% over the last week to nearly $286 per dwt, which represents a 1.4% decline in the last month and a 9.7% slide since last year.
Seaborne Shipbrokers estimated on Monday that the price for a 15-year-old panamax bulker has slid by 2.1% over the last month to $14.9m.
But the Greek broking house noted that transactions involving ice-class vessels were among the few S&P deals being done in the panamax bulker sector.
“The sale and purchase market remained relatively quiet, with few fresh enquiries mainly focusing on panamaxes and capes, demand for which investors expect to see improving following the gradual opening of China,” Seaborne said.
