Transmed Shipping appears to have sold a 16-year-old panamax bulker, completing an earlier effort to offload the vessel that probably failed due to unforeseen circumstances.
Athens-based brokers said the low-profile shipowner has sold the 73,000-dwt Edelweiss (built 2004), although others said the deal is still under negotiation.
The Jiangnan Shipyard-built ship has gone to undisclosed interests for $6m, the sources said. That is about 20% lower than the price Transmed was to obtain in December 2019, when a Chinese buyer reportedly tied up the same vessel for $7.4m.
It is likely due to an accident that Transmed was unable to offload the Edelweiss — its oldest bulker by far — as early as last year. On the very same day that brokers reported the ship as sold at the time, the vessel ran aground about 200 nautical miles (370 km) off Taboneo, Indonesia.
The vessel was loaded with 71,627 tonnes of Indonesian steam coal. The ship was on a voyage to Yeosu in South Korea, according to Tsavliris Salvage, which was contracted to provide assistance.
The salvage operation proved particularly tricky, partly due to bad weather. Numerous refloating attempts had to be undertaken before salvage was completed on 9 March, a full 10 weeks after the grounding. No pollution was caused.
Transmed acquired the Edelweiss in April 2007 from Japan’s Kyokuto Shipping for a full $64m.
Transmed has been an active player in the sale-and-purchase market — both for tankers and for bulkers. Charalambos Mylonas-led Transmed is predominantly a bulker company but it entered the oil carrier segment in October 2018 and has purchased three VLCCs and two suezmaxes since.
Its latest VLCC joined the company in February this year, when Transmed paid Sinokor Merchant Marine about $31.5m for the 319,000-dwt tanker Mediterranean Glory (built 2004). It has been renamed Gilos.
As the shipowner piles up tankers, it has been shrinking its exposure to bulkers, selling two kamsarmax newbuildings at Sasebo Heavy Industries, as well as a secondhand panamax.
Transmed, which is based in Athens and in Limassol, Cyprus, is listed with about 30 vessels — mostly bulkers with an average age of seven years.
