One of the world’s largest dry bulk operators, Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL), has started ordering handymax bulk carriers again after refraining from investment for the past two years.
The Tokyo based owner/operator has secured slots for three 52,000-dwt bulkers at Oshima Shipbuilding with delivery dates in 2021.
Clarksons has the order as 56,000-dwt vessels handing over in 2020, however.
MOL confirmed the order at Oshima to TradeWinds, but said it could not go into details.
The newbuildings will be built to Nox Tier III specifications and, to meet the upcoming 2020 limits on sulphur emissions, MOL has opted to fit exhaust gas emission scrubbers to the ships from a European supplier.
No price has been declared for the order but brokers suggest 52,000-dwt bulk carrier newbuildings built to NOx Tier III specifications are priced around $24m each in Japan.
Although the newbuilding slots have been taken by MOL it is likely to eventually charter the ships in on a long term basis from a local owner to keep the debt off its balance sheet.
The company has based its dry bulk business in the handysize sector as an owner/operator with owned and long term chartered in tonnage accounting for the majority of its operated fleet and additional tonnage taken from the spot market.
Bulkers being scaled down
MOL currently operates a long term charter and owned fleet of around 60 handymax bulkers and around another 30 or more taken from the spot market depending on the trading conditions.
Under a recent financial reform of its dry bulk business MOL has been attempting to scale down its dry bulk operation and reduce its risk.
The move came in response to massive losses in the dry bulk business and the general down turn in the dry bulk trading market.
According to MOL’s latest financial figures its dry bulk business is firmly back in the black following the reforms a factor that it appears has encouraged it to invest again. For the first three quarters of fiscal 2017 it reported dry bulk sales of JPY 200.2bn ($1.8bn) and an ordinary profit of JPY 11.2bn, up 19.8% on the previous year.
The order will also add to Oshima Shipbuilding’s already significant backlog of orders. The shipbuilder has always had a policy of securing strong forward cover and is now filling its orderbook nearly four years ahead into 2021.
Oshima currently has built up an order backlog of 64 ships, mostly supramax, ultramax and panamax bulk carriers, amounting to 4 million-dwt.
