Greece’s Lemos Group has bought its second capesize in as many months.
Operating through Valhal Shipping, its exclusive Hamburg-based dry bulk agent, siblings Filippos and Andonis Lemos are spending $50.5m on the 181,200-dwt Mineral Yarden (built 2016), ship-management sources told TradeWinds.
The Imabari-built ship is currently co-owned by Bocimar and National Coal Supply Corp, the company responsible for supplying coal to Israel.
The Mineral Yarden is among the three youngest capesizes to change hands in the sale-and-purchase market since February and its purchase underlines steady buying interest in the sector amid rising earnings and steady demand for such vessels.
“Very recently we’ve seen a number of capers hitting the selling block — from older ships to modern ones,” Athens-based Doric Shipbrokers said in its weekly report on 13 May.
With asset prices steadily rising and capesize freight rates volatile, however, calculations to buy such ships are trickier than for smaller bulkers.
“The cape’s secondhand reflex is very sensitive and more often than not very brief — blink and you’ll miss it,” Doric’s analysts said.
Playing it safe
Lemos and Valhal are protecting themselves against such volatility by acquiring their capesizes on the back of secured, long-term employment.
According to brokers, the Mineral Yarden will enter a five-year agreement with Bunge, a major trader, at $26,000 per day.
Lemos’ previous capesize purchase through Valhal, that of the 182,000-dwt Red Sage (built 2015) for $47.5m, is understood to have been backed by long-term employment as well.
“With asset prices rising, they feel more comfortable buying ships that way,” one source said.
Managers at Lemos and Bocimar did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Bunge is known to be fixing capesizes for very long periods. As TradeWinds reported in March, the St Louis-based commodity major fixed Diana Shipping’s 181,500-dwt Florida (built 2022) for five years at $25,900 per day.
Diana said at the time it expected to make at least $45m in revenue off the deal, which analysts described as a “very rare event… but [also] indicative of the confidence many charterers are gaining that this freight market will remain elevated”.
Speaking to TradeWinds in April, Valhal founder Jacob Juncher did not conceal his bullishness for the business. “As a whole, we believe that the dry bulk market is in for a good few years of demand growth with a limited supply of new bulkers hitting the water,” he said.
Wobbly geopolitics, as exemplified in a European ban on Russian coal, may unsettle certain trades but also increase tonne-miles as buyers source imports from farther away, Juncher added.
Making space for newbuildings
Meanwhile, Bocimar, the dry bulk unit of Compagnie Maritime Belge, is turning its attention to younger, bigger and technologically more advanced bulkers.
The company confirmed in late March that it has ordered a pair of 210,000-dwt newcastlemaxes at Chinese yard Qingdao Beihai Shipbuilding Heavy Industries, to be delivered in the second half of 2024.
Brokers believe the dual-fuel ammonia-ready pair are set to cost $66m each.
Bocimar chief commercial officer Benoit Timmermans described the order as part of a fleet renewal programme “with future-proof vessels”.
Bocimar has another eight such vessels under construction at Beihai.
