Safe Bulkers has continued its fleet renewal, days after agreeing to sell an elderly panamax.
The New York-listed Greek owner said it is buying a 2013-built panamax of 78,000 dwt for $22m.
The Japanese-built vessel will join the fleet by August. The company is using cash reserves to add the ship.
TradeWinds' reported earlier in June that Safe Bulkers had sold the 76,000-dwt panamax Maria (built 2003), one of its three oldest vessels, to undisclosed buyers for $12.3m.
The ship, which is set for delivery in August, is the fifth panamax or kamsarmax that the Polys Hajioannou-led company has divested since February.
The heady state of the bulker market has opened up fleet-renewal and asset-play opportunities — even for veteran vessels.
President Loukas Barmparis said: "This new acquisition is part of our efforts to gradually renew our fleet through selective acquisition of younger secondhand Japanese-built tonnage replacing older vessels or Chinese-built vessels."
However, the "core part of our renewal strategy remains the acquisition of advanced-design, energy-efficient newbuilds".
A 2011-built Japanese panamax was also acquired earlier this year.
Safe Bulkers has four newbuildings on order in Japan: three post-panamaxes and a kamsarmax.
Shipbroker Clarksons lists two of them under construction at Oshima Shipbuilding, but the other yards are not known.
The latest orders were a pair of 87,000-dwt post-panamaxes contracted in May for delivery in the first half of 2023.
That delivery date is "attractive", Barmparis said at the time.
Safe Bulkers has not revealed a price for the vessels, other than again describing it as "attractive".
The Athens-based company recently reported its best quarterly performance in seven years, with net income of $21.3m for the first three months of 2021, compared with a $9.9m loss in the same period last year.
The shipowner said it will use the cash earned in the market upturn to gradually and selectively acquire environmentally top-notch vessels that it expects to generate superior returns.
