The pace of secondhand bulker transactions has quickened markedly over the past few days, with brokers attributing the increasing number of deals to weaker freight market conditions and softer ship values.
Eva Tzima, head of research at Athens’ Seaborne Shipbrokers, said: “With only a few weeks to go before the end-of-year holiday, chances that rates can significantly rebound before the Chinese Lunar holidays are decreasing, pushing several sellers to market even more aggressively older dry bulkers they have decided to disinvest from before the end of 2024.”
Similar remarks are made by other brokers in Greece and the US.
Xclusiv Shipbrokers, in its weekly late note on Monday, said: “This week, we saw an abundance of vessels hitting the sales market.”
According to US brokers, trade was particularly “brisk” in supramaxes or ultramaxes, with eight vessels in that category being reported as changing hands.
In line with previous trends, most deals involve Western owners offloading older vessels to willing Asian buyers.
The supramax deals include three similar, Mitsui-built vessels reported sold in separate transactions.
In the first of them, Melina Travlos dry bulk company Neptune Dry is said to be selling to Chinese interests the oldest of its five bulkers — the Mitsui Ichihara-built, 56,100-dwt ND Armonia (built 2011), for $17.95m.
Fellow Greek owner AE Nomikos is reportedly divesting the two-year-older sister ship Aurora SB for about $15.5m.
And Atlantica Shipping is said to be obtaining $15.2m from the sale to Chinese interests of the Mitsui Tamano-built, 55,700-dwt Atlantica Sun (built 2009).
South Korean-built tonnage is predictably fetching lower prices. Turkey’s Cebi Denizcilik achieved $16.75m in a sale to unidentified Indonesians of the 55,700-dwt, Hyundai Mipo-built Senanur Cebi (built 2011).
Kamsarmaxes are getting a fair share of the action as well: undisclosed Greeks are said to be swooping on Hongxin Ship Management’s modern, 81,700-dwt Yangze 12 (built 2019) for $29.3m.
That transaction would be in line with others reported by TradeWinds earlier this month in which Hellenic interests are taking advantage of price declines to get their hands on modern kamsarmax tonnage.
Kamsarmax prices “have been hit the hardest” among bulkers, with a 13% decline for five-year-old vessels and a 17% drop for 10-year-old vessels compared with their third-quarter peak, Xclusiv said in its weekly report on Monday.
When it comes to older supramax and panamax tonnage, Tzima wrote in Seaborne’s weekly note that she would not be surprised to see demolition sales.
“Should profitability across both sizes move down and closer to opex levels in the next few months, we won’t be surprised if it leads to some long-anticipated demolition activity, especially as approximately 3% of both the supramax and panamax fleets will be turning 20-year-old next year, implying a meaningful survey cost for their respective owners,” she said.
Doric Shipbrokers, another specialised Athens bulker brokerage, wrote in its sale-and-purchase comment on 22 November: “The outlook for 2025 and even 2026 isn’t exactly brimming with optimism.”
