In another busy week for bulk carrier transactions on the secondhand market, Greek buyers have tended to concentrate on younger vessels and sellers on older ones.

Whenever a vessel built after 2012 changes hands, Hellenic players are usually to be found on the buyers’ column.

In one example already reported by TradeWinds, US-listed Safe Bulkers announced on 26 May it agreed to purchase for $31.75m a ten-year-old capesize it will name Aghia Sofia.

The ship has been identified since as Cara Shipping’s 176,000-dwt Stella Flora (built 2012) since. This is just one of several capesizes sold by the Singapore-based company in recent months.

Safe Bulkers justified the purchase by saying that it expects to fix such vessels at good, multi-year charters over the next 18 months and that the ships carry “minimal downside risk”, considering their residual value.

Other Greek owners seem to be sharing that view.

Athens brokers have tied George Chatzis-led Newport SA to a $31.6m purchase of a Japanese-owned but Chinese-built kamsarmax — the 81,900-dwt Majulah Harbourfront (built 2014).

That deal compares with the $34m unidentified buyers reportedly spent on Meiji Shipping’s 81,800-dwt Capricorn Moon (built 2015) — a vessel built at Tsuneishi Cebu in the Philippines.

Moving on to smaller, but younger tonnage, unidentified Greek buyers are believed to have agreed to buy the Chinese-built 63,200-dwt Yangzhou Confidence (built 2017) for between $31m and $31.5m.

A similar vessel made in Japan, the 61,300-dwt Pavo Bright (built 2017), fetched a higher price of about $33.5m in a deal between seller Kurushima Senpaku and unidentified Greek buyers.

Nippo Shipping, another Japanese seller benefitting from a low yen, is reported by brokers to have collected about $23.5m from the sale to Greeks of the 56,100-dwt Xin Xiang Hai (built 2012).

Out with the old

On the selling side of the equation, Greek companies continue benefitting from the good market momentum to offload older vessels.

Stam Shipping has committed for sale the 33,800-dwt Cetus Star (built 2004) and the 32,300-dwt Cassiopeia Star (built 2005) in two separate deals that should fetch the Athens-based company at least $25m in total.

Just a few days after TradeWinds reported that Greek-controlled firms SwiftBulk and Blue Planet Shipping agreed to divest some of their oldest supramaxes, brokers in Athens, London and the US reported them as selling yet more vessels of the same age and class.

SwiftBulk is said to be lining up a deal to offload the 55,800-dwt Osios David (built 2012) for about $23m. Blue Planet reportedly agreed to divest the 53,800-dwt Evnia (built 2003) for $14m.

Even 26-year-old vessels continue finding trading buyers, as is the case with the Japanese-built 27,900-dwt Lion (built 1996), which Greece’s Clio Navigation is said to be offloading for at least $8m.

“Dry bulk owners remain overall positive as evidenced by their investment tempo in the secondhand market, which remains supported by expected demand growth for key dry bulk commodities in the remainder of 2022,” Seaborne Shipbrokers said on 30 May.