Atlantic Bulk Carriers Management of Greece has turned to what are possibly its first newbuilding orders in China.
The Piraeus-based company, which has traditionally ordered newbuildings at Japanese and South Korean shipyards, has commissioned China’s Nantong Xiangyu Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering to build three 63,500-dwt bulkers.
A shipbuilding source familiar with the deal said the Coumantaros family-controlled company ordered the trio a few months ago but the deal was never reported.
According to the Clarksons database, the contracts were signed in March and the vessels, Hull Nos XY065, XY119 and XY120, are due for delivery between January and May 2025.
The S&P Global Markets database, however, indicates that delivery time will be a little later, in March, May and September 2025.
A senior Atlantic Bulk manager said last year that the company would build its future vessels to be ready for methanol propulsion.
The future, however, does not seem to have entirely arrived yet. According to the shipbuilding source, the newbuildings will be powered by conventional fuel.
Atlantic Bulk is believed to be paying around $32m each for the Sdari-designed bulkers.
“These are standard ultramax bulk carriers that will be built to the International Maritime Organization’s Tier III NOx standards,” the source said.
Periodic fleet renewal
Managers at Atlantic Bulk, an owner of 19 supramaxes and ultramaxes, were not immediately available to comment.
The company, however, is known to be periodically renewing its fleet.
As part of that strategy, it last placed newbuilding orders in late 2019 — two ultramaxes it took delivery of from Hyundai Vietnam Shipbuilding last year.
On the other side of the fleet renewal equation, Atlantic has been a busy seller in the secondhand market, divesting 10 ageing ships over the past five years, including its only tanker.
Atlantic Bulk’s three ultramaxes at Nantong Xiangyu are the first newbuildings it has ordered from scratch in China, according to TradeWinds data reaching back nearly 30 years.
The company did take delivery of three supramaxes from China’s Taizhou Kouan Shipbuilding more than 15 years ago.
This trio, however, had been acquired in a resale deal.
Bought from Greece’s Restis group for at least $110m during the 2006 shipping boom, the 54,000-dwt Desert Unity (built 2006), Desert Rhapsody and Desert Symphony (both built 2007) are still trading with Atlantic Bulk and are its oldest ships.
All other vessels in the fleet were constructed at yards controlled by Japanese and South Korean shipbuilders.
Atlantic Bulk’s new shipbuilding partner Nantong Xiangyu is a state-owned shipyard founded at the end of 2016, when an alliance of three domestic companies — Xiamen Xiangyu, Nantong Tongbao Shipping and China Ocean Industry Group — took over the collapsed Nantong Mingde Heavy Industries in an online auction.
The Jiangsu-based shipyard focuses on building handysize tankers and bulkers up to kamsarmaxes.
Nantong Xiangyu has expanded capacity by renting slipways and a dry dock from Sainty Shipbuilding (formerly Sainty Marine) and is building ultramax bulkers there.
VesselsValue lists Nantong Xiangyu with an order backlog of 62 newbuildings.
