News published by TradeWinds last month about Greece’s giant Angelicoussis Shipping Group offloading its second-oldest capesize was confirmed on Monday, with a little-known Chinese player showing its hand behind the deal.
The new owner of the 174,300-dwt Maran Fortune (built 2005) is Macrock International Group, an iron ore trading company that appears to have registered in Hong Kong a few months ago.
The scrubber-fitted vessel changed hands last month and is trading as of 23 August as Leone Fortune with Treasure Boost Shipping — Macrock’s shipping asset platform.
The deal was arranged and revealed by Ebridge Capital, a Shanghai ship finance player that has concluded deals for Angelicoussis ships before.
Ebridge made headlines last year when it emerged behind a big-ticket, $200m transaction for the Angelicoussis’ mini-capesize fleet of eight vessels.
By the time it bought the ships, Ebridge was already in talks to arrange their employment with state-owned and private Chinese cargo owners.
These discussions seem to have borne fruit.
The S&P Global Markets data platform is listing all eight former Maran mini-capesizes under the ownership of Bank of Communications and under the management of several different Chinese companies.
The Maran Fortune transaction is therefore just the latest in a line of deals between Angelicoussis unit Maran Dry Management and Chinese cargo-based shipowners.
According to an Ebridge manager, Macrock’s activities span bulk product trading, shipping logistics and resource development through subsidiaries in West Africa, Australia, Singapore and China.
Macrock’s shipping venture forms part of China’s “strategic resource policy” to increasingly rely on its own supply chains — from overseas mining projects to onshore industrial production.
This policy explains the ascendancy of China’s commercial fleet, which for the first time last month became bigger than the Greek one in terms of gross tonnage, according to Clarksons figures.
Bulkers have played a considerable role in the rise of the Chinese fleet since 2015.
The Maran Fortune and the eight mini-capesizes are not the only bulkers for which Maran Dry has found willing Chinese buyers.
As TradeWinds reported in April, Maran sold another scrubber-fitted capesize — the 171,700-dwt Maran Pioneer (built 2004) — most likely for $16.5m or $17m.
Macrock ambitions
That ship has since emerged as AC Pioneer under the management of a new Chinese company called Glorious Youth Shipping.
Set up in 2022 and based in Shanghai, Glorious Youth has already assembled six midsize to large bulkers. Apart from the Angelicoussis capesize, Glorious Youth has bought supramaxes, post-panamaxes and a panamax bulker from Japanese, Singaporean and Chinese owners.
Macrock also has ambitions to expand. According to the Ebridge manager, the iron trader aims to build a fleet of up to eight vessels, from capesize to newcastlemax.
Maran Dry, which has been renewing its fleet with ultra-modern dual-fuel capesizes, has a fleet of 43 capesizes and newcastlemaxes. The oldest is the 171,700-dwt Maran Innovation (built 2004) — a scrubber-fitted ship that was rumoured sold in April but that is still trading with the Angelicoussis fleet.
