Maria Angelicoussis’ Maran Dry Management may have spent up to $100m over the past couple of months to buy two relatively modern capesizes that could include Herun China Shipping’s last vessel.
The move is part of a long-standing fleet renewal campaign by the major Greek capesize owner, which coincides with a separate $21.5m sale of its oldest ship reported by TradeWinds earlier this week.
The first acquisition, the 181,000-dwt Courageous (built 2016), is confirmed and has already been delivered under its new name of Maran Dynasty.
The Courageous was previously in the fleet of Hong Kong-based Teh Hu Steamship. News of its sale first surfaced in June but the identity of its new owner remained unclear.
Maran Dry had been mentioned as a possible buyer at the time, at a price of $50.5m. Other big Greek names were mooted as well, such as Thenamaris and Eastern Mediterranean Maritime.
Latest market talk suggests that Maran’s purchase of the Courageous was not a one-off.
According to brokers in Athens and London, it agreed last month to buy another Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding-built capesize of a similar age — the 181,100-dwt Herun Zhejiang (built 2017).
The price remains unclear but it is probably around $50m as well.
Maran is a frequent buyer of other owners’ tonnage. Its recent purchase activity, however, diverges from past company practice.
Over the past 15 years, Maran usually acquired resale bulkers around the time of their scheduled delivery by the shipyards constructing them.
The only exception so far had been the 208,900-dwt Maran Loyalty (built 2017), which the Angelicoussis Group purchased from Greek peer George Economou in 2020 when it was three years old.
Maran’s latest acquisitions, the Courageous and — if confirmed — the Herun Zhejiang are clearly older with an age of six and seven years respectively.
Maran, an owner of about 40 capesizes and newcastlemaxes, does not discuss its commercial transactions.
Herun China at the end of the road
Its decision to pounce on a relatively older ship may be explained by the fact that capesizes offered for sale by Herun China Shipping have been popular with other first-class owners.
Major players, including three from Greece, picked up all four capesize sister ships that Herun divested over the past 14 months, leaving the Zhoushan-based company without any vessels.
Kollakis family-led Chartworld Shipping was the first buyer to strike, snapping up the 181,100-dwt Herun Zhoushan (renamed Star Asia, built 2017) in June last year for about $41.5m.
UK-based Union Maritime followed at the end of 2023, with the $42m purchase of the 181,000-dwt Herun China (renamed Cape Bernina, built 2017).
The penultimate buyer of a Herun capesize was Alpha Bulkers — a company controlled by a separate branch of the Angelicoussis family. Frangiskos Kanellakis-led Alpha agreed at the end of June 2024 to buy the 181,100-dwt Herun Global (renamed Alpha Force, built 2016) for about $49.5m.
Steadily steeper capesize prices have dampened Greeks’ buying enthusiasm.
TradeWinds data shows Hellenic buyers acquiring just 20 capesizes on the secondhand market in the first eight months of 2024, compared with 26 in the last eight months of last year and 36 over the full 2023.
Greek buyers active in the market this year are big, liquid or US-listed companies such as Capital Maritime, Chartworld, Costamare, Danaos, Goldenport Shipmanagement, Neda Maritime Agency, Maran Dry and Thenamaris.
The average age of the 20 capesizes these companies have bought so far in 2024 for about $930m in total is about nine years.
By contrast, the 17 capesizes that Greek owners have sold this year in confirmed deals for about $420m had an average age of 16 years.
