Lomar Shipping, one of the shrewdest players in the secondhand market, has bought its first bulkers since early 2022, pouncing on a trio of supramaxes.
The total spend of just above $40m is relatively modest.
The three deals in themselves, however, provide further evidence of the positive, if fragile, sentiment that is building in the bulker market around expectations of a rebound in the Chinese economy.
Flexibly trading supramaxes, in particular, have attracted attention, with Lomar pouncing on mid-aged eco-engine vessels of the Dolphin 57 design type.
The company declined to comment on commercial issues.
Market sources, however, identify the Nicholas Georgiou-led firm as the buyer of three such Chinese-built ships in separate deals concluded over the past weeks and days.
One of them concerns the 56,700-dwt Universal Bangkok (built 2012).
Brokers had reported that Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement sold it to unidentified buyers for $15.8m.
The sources now say Lomar was the buyer at a price that was actually quite a bit lower, at between $15m and $15.5m.
The second ship going Lomar’s way is the 57,100-dwt Haut Brion (built 2011).
According to the sources, a memorandum of agreement was signed for the vessel, which was sold by Chinese interests for between $13m and in the low $14m.
The Haut Brion will probably be delivered to its new owners after May.
The third vessel is identified by the sources as the 57,000-dwt Ariadne (renamed Oslo Trader, built 2010), which was delivered at the end of April. According to the sources, it was sold by Greece’s Livanos Group for around $13m.
The price is right
When Lomar moves, market observers usually pay attention.
The Logothetis family-controlled company has made a fortune over the past decade by timely increasing and then decreasing its exposure to offshore vessels and container ships.
Under Georgiou’s stewardship over the past two years, Lomar sold more than 30 container ships.
Most of these sales represented lucrative asset plays, generating total gross proceeds far exceeding the $1bn mark.
Lomar had been far less active in the bulker arena. Its latest purchase was more than a year ago, when it bought three panamax bulk carriers from John Fredriksen-backed Golden Ocean Group.
Lomar agreed at the time to pay $52m for the three Chinese-built vessels: the 79,500-dwt Golden Empress (renamed Cape Kourion) and sister ship Golden Endeavour (renamed Cape Akamas, both built 2010) and Golden Enterprise (renamed Cape Greco, built 2011).
The acquisition of the three supramaxes suggests that the company believes secondhand prices for such ships make sense currently, given the level of their earnings and the relatively small orderbook in the sector.
The trio boosts the Lomar bulker fleet to three large panamaxes, five supramaxes and two ultramaxes.
Despite its recent container ship selling, Lomar maintains a sizeable boxship fleet of about 40 managed vessels.
Its website also features four small chemical tankers.
Lomar’s diversified fleet numbers more than 60 ships with an average age of about seven years.
