A Greek rush to build stakes in US-listed Eagle Bulk Shipping is part of a general trend that sees Hellenic interests piling into bulker assets at a time when other market participants are feeling wobbly about the sector.
Flush with cash from recent bonanzas in the container ship and tanker markets, Danaos and Castor Maritime revealed significant stakes in Eagle Bulk, as TradeWinds has reported.
Other Greek players, such as George Procopiou and George Economou, have been looking to up their bulker exposure through a spate of newbuilding projects.
However, the trend has been more pronounced in the secondhand market after asset values there started declining.
Hellenic interests that have earned big in other ship types in recent years are believed to have scooped up the majority of vessels offered for sale in the market lately.
One of them is United Maritime Corp, which confirmed the $17.8m purchase of the 76,400-dwt Santa Barbara (built 2011) last week. The Stamatis Tsantanis-led company funded that acquisition largely through the $14.2m profit it made from selling its last tanker, the 109,600-dwt Epanastasea (built 2009).
A few weeks earlier, Lou Kollakis’ Chartworld Shipping recycled some of its tanker sale profits into the purchase of a six-year-old bulker, the 180,900-dwt Herun Zhoushan (built 2017).
In a more dramatic move, Logothetis family-owned Lomar swooped on a quartet of 79,500-dwt kamsarmaxes for more than $50m earlier this year, following the sale of at least 15 boxship feeders for more than $330m.
The latest of the container ships that Lomar is said to have sold is the 1,102-teu Tacoma Trader (built 2015), which has fetched about $18m, according to Clarksons.
Vafias family company Brave Maritime, a pioneer of the Greek bulker buying trend with four capesize acquisitions under its belt late last year, added another two capesizes and one supramax in 2023.
But perhaps no other Greek company has invested more in bulkers in recent years than US-listed Costamare, which burst onto the scene with a wave of secondhand purchases a couple of years ago.
The company had stopped buying such vessels for a while but now seems to be back at it again.
TradeWinds already reported last week about the owner of 71 container ships and 43 bulkers buying its first capesize, Goodbulk’s 176,000-dwt Aquaenna (built 2011).
Several brokers and market sources suggest that Costamare is about to buy another capesize from the same source, reportedly spending about $23.5m on the 179,800-dwt Aquarange (built 2011).
More than meets the eye
Buying capesizes may not be as counter-intuitive as it seems. Some market observers point out that big bulkers have been actually performing better on the freight market lately than they generally have been given credit for.
“Current market signals indicate a robust freight market sentiment for capesize vessels, while smaller vessel sizes face softening rates,” Signal Ocean market analyst Maria Bertzeletou wrote in a recent report, analysing trends in the freight, ballast, demand and port congestion data for June.
However, Greek bulker buying has been prominent in the smaller size classes as well — particularly for relatively modern tonnage built at Japanese or Japanese-controlled yards and sold by Japanese owners.
After a couple of such high-profile Greek purchases reported last week, Hellenic interests are said to be spending close to $20m on the 78,100-dwt Coral Opal (built 2012) and about $28.5m on the 64,000-dwt KK Progression (built 2018).
Some brokers have tied Athens-based companies W Marine and Mykonos Shipping to each of these deals. Both firms, however, have denied any involvement.
Other Japanese-built bulkers believed to have passed to Greek hands last week are Nissen Kaiun’s 82,800-dwt Lord Star (built 2013) for about $23m and Tomini Shipping’s 38,000-dwt Tomini Bora (built 2016) for $19.7m.
Some brokers believe it is Greeks as well who have pounced on the third in a string of modern kamsarmaxes auctioned in China lately.
The ship in question is the 81,100-dwt JY Hongkong (built 2019), which Bank of Communications has put under the hammer for $30m.
As TradeWinds already reported, another pair of scrubber-fitted sister ships were recently sold at auction as well last month, by the same seller, at slightly lower prices — the 81,100-dwt JY Bulk (built 2018) for $28.49m and the similar-size JY Pacific (built 2019) for $28.76m.
