Taiwan state-owned China Steel Express has pocketed a reported $35.5m from Greece’s Alberta Shipmanagment for two newcastlemax bulkers just over 15 years old.
The sale to the Nicholas Inglessis family-controlled company breaks the Taiwanese owner’s streak of selling its surplus tonnage into China through Taiwanese compatriot Eddie Steamship.
Broker reports and data provider VesselsValue reported that the 203,500-dwt sisterships China Steel Team (built 2006) and China Steel Entrepreneur (built 2007) have changed hands for $17.75m each. Both ships have been through third special survey.
The two newcastlemaxes were both built at Taiwanese state-controlled shipyard CSBC Kaohsiung. China Steel Express is a subsidiary of Taiwanese state-controlled China Steel. The reported seller has been approached for comment.
The reported buyer has also been approached for comment. Alberta Shipmanagement, founded in 2019 by one branch of the family behind Samos Steamship, has built up a diverse fleet of five bulkers and 10 tankers, not counting a VLCC and an LR1 on order.
The industrially-oriented seller China Steel Express, with a fleet of 24 vessels that includes 17 newcastlemaxes, has put a steady stream of ships on the market from its renewal programme.
In 2020 and 2021, five China Steel Express capesizes in their upper teen years went to CC Hsu’s Eddie Steamship or his Shandong province-owned mainland partner Shandong Shipping Asset Management Corp (SAMC). Samc, in which Eddie is a shareholder alongside Shandong Shipping and affiliates, works in partnership with Eddie for sourcing its vessels.
Last year, Eddie and SAMC were paying up to $23m for China Steel Express newcastlemaxes, as in the December 2021 purchase of 203,500-dwt newcastlemax China Steel Realist (built 2007).
But this time around, levels $5m lower than that were unattractive.
“The issue with these two vessels is that the current abysmal freight market for them does not justify the final price, but because they have a very heavy lightweight, and current demolition values are still historically speaking very high, that basically set a floor price for them,” Hsu told TradeWinds.
“Plus, their main engines have high fuel consumption rates, which in the current environment of very high fuel prices made these ships expensive to run.”
In addition to Taiwanese castoffs, SAMC has also sourced Japanese-built newcastlemaxes from the broader market, most recently in March with the purchase of the 203,300-dwt Samc Libero (ex-Azul Libero, built 2003) for a reported $18.75m.
Some 40 capesize sales have been reported during the second half of this year, but there are too few closely deals with disclosed prices to establish a comparable last-done price for this deal.
In September, Winning Shipping paid $16.8m for the Imabari-built 206,300-dwt Spring Brave (built 2007) with special survey due.
But recent sales reflect a general downward trend of prices from early this year, when two similarly-aged and Japanese-built newcastlemaxes both commanded $19.5m. The Imabari-built 206,300-dwt Baosteel Elevation (now Netadola, built 2007) was sold at that price in January with special survey due, as was the Universal-built 203,200-dwt Baosteel Expedition (now Pictor Marine built 2007) in February.
In April the Imabari-built 206,300-dwt Azul Legenda (now Classic Aro, built 2008) brought a whopping $26m in a sale to Orion Reederei.
