Greek shipowners have become more active buyers of secondhand kamsarmaxes, drawn in by declining prices influenced by below-average freight rates.
They have been tied to four separate purchases of these ships, along with a post-panamax, and market observers are taking notice.
“Interesting to note [that] Greek appetite for kamsarmax[es] has increased lately on the back of [a] correction in values,” brokers at WeberSeas wrote on 11 October.
Doric Shipbrokers, another Athens-based outfit, is making a similar point.
“Just a few weeks ago, a portion of shipowners were stand-offish about making purchases, as the market had not yet shown signs of waning prices,” Doric wrote in its weekly report.
“But now, as we see prices softening — or at the very least, flat — some are revisiting their plans to purchase, especially if the slide continues,” Doric added.
TradeWinds reported two such deals last week.
Greek owner George Chatzis spent about $16.5m on the 82,200-dwt Lily Atlantic (built 2009).
Separately, Athens-based peer Pioneer Marine is believed to be in advanced talks with Italy’s Premuda to buy its first kamsarmax, the 82,300-dwt PS Cadiz (built 2010) for $16.8m — a vessel scheduled to pass special survey by May next year.
Unidentified Greek buyers are now being tied to another pair of kamsarmax deals.
Several brokers in Athens and London are reporting that the 81,900-dwt Nord Pluto (built 2014) is heading towards Greek ownership for $24m.
The Tsuneishi Cebu-built vessel is chartered by Norden and owned by Japan’s Keishin Kaiun Co.
Norden has Japanese yen-denominated purchase options on about 50 bulkers and has said that lower prices “could be an impetus to buy”.
The chartered-in Nord Pluto, however, does not seem to be among the vessels for which Norden exercised a purchase option, as all brokers report the ship as bought by Greeks.
One reason for this might be that most of Norden’s owned bulkers are equipped with scrubbers while the Nord Pluto is not.
The second kamsarmax reportedly heading a Greek owner’s way is the 80,900-dwt Nord Virgo (built 2014) for between $26.1m and $26.5m.
That is considerably higher than the price fetched by the Nord Pluto, which is understandable, as the Nord Virgo was built in Japan and comes equipped with a scrubber.
The Nord Virgo is listed under the ownership of Japan’s Nissen Kaiun and does not feature on any Norden fleet list.
Both the Nord Virgo and the Nord Pluto are reportedly changing hands at significant discounts compared to their values just a couple of months ago.
According to VesselsValue, the Nord Pluto was worth $26.9m at the time while the Nord Virgo was notably higher at $30.7m.
