A shipping outfit set up in Greece about two years ago has quietly assembled a fleet of eight ships and is still growing.
Despite its name, which seems to suggest activity in smaller vessels, MPP Carriers has been a dedicated bulker player, buying a wide range of ship types on the secondhand market, from handysizes to post-panamaxes.
Managers did not respond to a request for comment about its principals and its strategy.
Local market sources, however, are linking MPP Carriers to Andrei Goulevatyi, a Ukrainian-born shipping man who has grown up in Greece.
Goulevatyi is known as the founder of Prima Corp, another dry bulk operator with which MPP Carriers shares an address in the Athens suburb of Voula.
Right out of the gate after filing for registration in late 2021, MPP Carriers or clients thereof started engaging in a series of sale-and-purchase transactions worth an estimated $150m in total over a span of two years.
This has brought the company’s owned or operated fleet to eight vessels — three handies, two supramaxes, one ultramax, one panamax and a post-panamax. It shows a preference for tonnage built in China between 2010 and 2016.
Three of its ships used Ukraine’s Black Sea grain corridor late last year.
MPP Carriers’ S&P activity shows no signs of slowing.
After a string of purchases, it may be about to start reaping some profits from its counter-cyclical investing.
In February, Greek brokers reported that the 39,800-dwt Paul Bay (built 2016) was being sold to undisclosed buyers for $22m.
That is the first ship that joined MPP Carriers’ fleet in 2021, when bulker values were below the price at which it is reportedly selling the ship today.
If the sale of the Paul Bay is confirmed, MPP Carriers may be using some of the cash to re-invest in bigger bulker tonnage.
In late February, some Greek brokers identified the company as the buyer of a post-panamax sold by Oldendorff Carriers — the scrubber-fitted, 93,000-dwt Conrad Oldendorff (built 2010), which has been widely reported changing hands for about $16.5m.
Oldendorff in sale mode for midsize bulkers
Managers at Oldendorff did not respond to a request for comment.
The German shipping giant, however, is known to be shaking out post-pananaxes and kamsarmaxes to interested Greek parties.
In mid-October, market sources reported the 82,200-dwt Kuno Oldendorff (built 2022) as sold to Hellenic buyers for between $32.5m and $33m.
TradeWinds understands that the Kuno Oldendorff will join My Bulk Shipmanagement — a company associated with the Petropoulos family, which has so far run its vessels under the Minerva Ship Management label.
In December, Oldendorff followed up by divesting the scrubber-fitted, 81,200-dwt Kai Oldendorff (renamed Alice, built 2019) to Chinese interests for about $30.8m.
As TradeWinds already reported, the German company is believed to have sold another pair of scrubber-fitted vessels to Greek buyers since — the 93,000-dwt Charlotte Oldendorff and Christine Oldendorff (both built 2010) at $15.45m each.
