In a typically Greek countercyclical move, Samos Steamship has placed an order for a VLCC while making moves to cash in on bulkers it bought at the bottom of the market several years ago.
The company revealed on its website that it has placed an order with a Japanese yard for a 301,000-dwt crude carrier to be delivered in the first quarter of 2023.
Samos did not reveal the name of the shipyard. The company is a known fan of Japanese yards and has outstanding business with two of them.
Japan Marine United is set to deliver two 158,000-dwt suezmax newbuildings to Samos in the second quarter of this year.
It has also ordered two 112,000-dwt aframaxes at Sumitomo Heavy, due for delivery in the third quarter of 2021 and the second quarter of 2022.
Samos has a mixed fleet of 10 tankers and 10 bulkers on the water.
On the bulker side, it is moving in the opposite direction. Looking to take advantage of rising asset values, it has sold the Japanese-built, 82,400-dwt kamsarmax Karlovasi (built 2016) to Danish shipowner Norden for $26.9m, European brokers said.
Samos purchased the ship as a resale from Japan’s Daiichi in February 2016. The price of the transaction has not been disclosed. To judge by market conditions at the time, however, the ship is unlikely to have cost the company more than $19m.
The ship was named Karlovasi after a town on the Greek island of Samos, where the Inglessis family, Samos' principals, began trading goods with a small fleet of sailing boats in 1875.
Separately, US brokers reported that the company has agreed to sell the 84,700-dwt Limnionas (built 2017) for for $29m. Samos had bought the kamsarmax in a newbuilding resale deal at a far lower $25m.
These two deals come just a couple of weeks after Samos reportedly offloaded the 56,100-dwt Mykali (built 2011) to undisclosed Chinese or Greek interests for between $13.5m and $13.8m.
Versatile fleet
This is not the first time the Karlovasi is reported sold. Samos was rumoured to have offloaded the ship in December 2018 for about $28m. However, company managers promptly denied that information at the time and no such deal eventually materialised.
Samos managers did not respond to a request to comment on the renewed sales talk, and executives at Norden did not respond on whether they had bought the ship.
Norden, one of the leading Danish tanker and bulker owners, operates more than 400 vessels.
Its versatile fleet includes just two owned kamsarmaxes, which are both almost identical to the Karlovasi. They are the 81,800-dwt Nord Penguin and Nord Beluga (both built 2015), which the Copenhagen-listed company ordered at Oshima Shipbuilding in 2012 and 2013.
Like Samos, other Greek shipowners have taken advantage of rising bulker values for asset plays, as TradeWinds reported.
Empire Bulkers reportedly sold the 76,600-dwt panamax Jasmine A (built 2006) for as much as $12.5m. The Stamatis Molaris-controlled company had bought it in January 2017 for $8m.
And Nikolaos Vafias committed the 176,300-dwt Cape Aria (built 2005) for sale at $16.8m, after buying it last May for $12.5m.
