Greece’s Almi Marine Management has widened its ultramax newbuilding orderbook at Dalian Cosco KHI Ship Engineering (Dacks).

TradeWinds reported last month how the two companies were close to clinching a shipbuilding contract for a pair of 64,000-dwt ships due for delivery in the first half of 2024.

Ship-management sources in Athens now say the deal materialised and has even been expanded to include a third sistership, which the Athens-based company is scheduled to take delivery of in the fourth quarter of 2024.

Price details were not forthcoming. The ships, however, are known to be built to comply with phase 3 of the International Maritime Organization’s Energy Efficiency Design Index for newbuildings.

Ordering ultramaxes is a natural step forward for Almi. The Christos Hadjigeorgiou-led company so far has been focusing on supramaxes, the next smallest bulker size class, of which it manages seven.

Three of them represent Almi’s last known shipbuilding contracts, about 15 years ago, when the company commissioned supramaxes at STX Shipbuilding Co in South Korea.

The trio are still trading in Almi’s fleet and the company has recently agreed to sell one of them, the 57,300-dwt Karimu (built 2010), for about $19m with forward delivery in July.

The rationale

Almi began talks for another round of newbuildings with Dacks about four months ago.

The war that broke out in Ukraine, in the meantime, did little to dampen the company’s optimism — to the contrary, it even seems to have nudged them forward.

Several shipping players have come to the conclusion that related sanctions upheaval will concentrate minds towards mature and readily available carbon-reduction technologies, increasing demand for conventionally fuelled, high-spec ships.

This, and robust bulker earnings, will make shipping players shrug off a steep increase in steel prices, which propelled newbuilding prices to five-year highs, according to Allied Research.

“The absence of the placement of new orders for some time, combined with the encouraging secondhand values and the positive freight market momentum, are all bullish factors that have contributed to the dynamic re-emergence of this sector in the shipbuilding market,” the Athens-based brokerage said in a report earlier this month.

The lion’s share of such ordering has gone to ultramaxes.

As TradeWinds reported, Citic Financial Leasing signed up for 10 ultramax bulk carriers in a newbuilding debut with Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Co (DSIC). Shipbuilding sources said DSIC’s subsidiary Shanhaiguan Shipbuilding Industry will construct the ships and is scheduled to deliver them between 2024 and 2025.

In a separate move, Chinese shipping newcomer Huaxia Financial Leasing has returned to Nantong Xiangyu Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering for two more, 63,500-dwt ultramax newbuildings, bringing its order tally at the Chinese yard to six.

Its earlier four vessels were ordered in November.

Greek owner George Economou is also believed to have activated an initial deal reached last year to build four such bulkers at the same yard.

Brokers in Greece, China and the US reported earlier this month that Economou company TMS Dry will build the ultramaxes at the yard for delivery in 2024 for $32.5m each.