Norden is continuing its shift from wet to dry with two tanker sales and a series of unreported charters.
It has been an active year for the Danish owner-operator’s asset management division.
The company announced that it has sold two MR1 product tankers, the 38,400-dwt Nord Bell and 37,200-dwt Nord Hummock (both built 2007), in line with its strategy.
But it said last month’s lucrative sale of a kamsarmax, the 81,200-dwt Nord Stellar (built 2016), was an opportunistic deal.
VesselsValue reported the sale prices as $8.3m for the Nord Bell and $9.5m for the Nord Hummock.
TradeWinds previously reported Norden's purchase of three kamsarmaxes in March. VesselsValue puts the spend for the trio at $81.7m.
The 82,400-dwt Karlovasi (built 2016) and 82,300-dwt UWS 2 and UWS 3 (both built 2020) remain to be delivered from Samos Steamship and Mitsui & Co.
Meanwhile, Norden has disclosed the acquisition of seven more unnamed dry bulk vessels on long-term charter terms.
That makes 33 bulkers that the company said it has acquired since the beginning of 2020 through purchase or long-term charter.
“Our switch of exposure from tankers to dry cargo has been well timed,” chief executive Jan Rindbo said.
“The tanker market is still challenged by low oil demand due to the pandemic, while the dry-cargo market is extremely strong and we see this trend continuing during the year.”
All but one of the company’s deals reported this year are either disposals on the tank side or acquisitions on the dry side.
The single exception is the previously reported sale of the Nord Stellar, which Norden bought in December from Eneti for a reported $20m and flipped in March to Globus Maritime for a reported $25.5m.
But the company said that deal represents an opportunity to cash in on a rising market, not a strategy.
It said the Nord Stellar will complete just one voyage under its ownership before handover.
“The sale of Nord Stellar is not an indication of our loss of faith in the dry-cargo market, but rather an example of a fantastic asset trading opportunity,” said Norden’s head of asset management, Henrik Lykkegaard Madsen.
He said the company is continually looking for such opportunities.
