Neda Maritime Agencies is booking bulker newbuildings again after nearly a decade away from the action.
The traditional Greek owner is in the process of ordering a pair of kamsarmax newbuildings at Chengxi Shipyard, according to market sources, and this will be the company’s first bulker newbuilding order in nine years.
The last time the Lykiardopoulo-controlled outfit inked a contract to build new tonnage was in 2014, when it signed orders for three kamsarmaxes at Namura Shipbuilding and Tsuneishi Group (Zhoushan).
Tsuneishi Zhoushan had been Neda’s favourite yard so far, delivering a total of five kamsarmaxes to the Greek company between 2008 and 2016.
The contract at Chengxi Shipyard therefore marks a new departure in the Greek company’s strategy.
According to sources, the Chinese yard is scheduled to deliver the two newbuildings at some point in 2025.
The methanol-ready, next-generation design vessels are priced at about $32.8m each.
Neda’s two newbuildings represent a net expansion of its fleet, with the Greek company already known to be in fleet-renewal mode.
In September last year, it sold the 82,300-dwt Alexandra (renamed Ince Bosphorus, built 2006) to Turkey’s Ince Denizcilik for about $16.5m.
In October 2022, Neda rushed to replace that ageing ship by buying the 81,900-dwt Nord Gemini (renamed Alexandra, built 2017) – a vessel it bought from Norden for about $30.5m.
The acquisition of the Nord Gemini maintained the size of Neda’s bulker fleet at 15 vessels — six capesizes and nine kamsarmaxes built between 2009 and 2019.
Neda is also active in tankers through the ownership of five VLCCs and the same number of aframaxes. The aframax fleet will rise to six next year, when the company is due to take delivery of the 110,000-dwt newbuilding Santhia (built 2024) from DS Shipbuilding.
Newbuildings are not the only way in which the company is trying to upgrade its environmental performance and compliance.
In 2016, Neda said it became the world’s first shipping company to be awarded carbon credits, under a pioneering scheme developed by hull coating maker AkzoNobel.
In July last year, Neda said the 109,300-dwt tanker Suvretta (built 2008) — its oldest tanker — became the first vessel to include the impact of its hull coating included in its EEXI assessment and approval.
