Turkey’s Densay Shipping, a bulker company controlled by Tayfun Gunerhan, is keeping up its impressive expansion pace of recent years by investing close to $200m in six ultramax newbuildings.
The 64,000-dwt ships will be equipped with scrubbers and will have ammonia-ready notations, Gunerhan told TradeWinds in an e-mail.
Depending on each vessel’s particulars and specifications, their costs range between $31.95m and $32.5m apiece.
All will comply with the International Maritime Organization’s NOX Tier 3 standards and Phase 3 Energy Efficiency Design Index.
Three Chinese shipyards have each won the business to build two of the vessels.
“We have been in China for a long time, building very good quality ships there and we intend to remain and develop long-lasting relationships with our existing shipyards,” Gunerhan told TradeWinds.
“We [therefore] felt compelled to continue our business relationships with our existing yards for further expansion.”
One of the companies entrusted with constructing two of Densay’s six new ultramaxes is Jinling Shipyard — a builder with which Densay has had a relationship for the past 13 years.
Eight bulkers in the owner’s managed fleet were built at the Nanjing yard. Densay ordered seven of them as newbuildings, and three were ultramaxes.
The ultramaxes that Jinling is building for Densay now are due for very prompt delivery, in November 2024 and January 2025.
Densay placed its second pair of ultramax newbuildings with Nantong Xiangyu Shipbuilding, which will deliver them in July and September 2025.
Densay is familiar with this shipbuilder as well. Nantong Xiangyu recently completed another newbuilding programme of three ultramaxes for Densay, the latest of which was the 63,900 SSI Interceptor (built 2023).
Gunerhan — a Turkish businessman who started his career as a deck officer in 1985 and founded Densay seven years later — said he returned to Jinling and Nantong to reward them for past jobs well done.
Low price, high quality
Densay’s newbuildings there “were ordered at the lowest prices ever and built at very high quality and without any delays, even during the pandemic conditions”, he said.
“Both shipyards also earned our gratitude by not asking for any additional bonuses. We wanted to support them further for their cooperation.”
The third yard to win Densay’s latest ultramax newbuilding business is one the company has not had on its radar before — New Dayang Shipbuilding.
The Yangzhou ultramax specialist will complete its pair of Densay ships in August and October 2025.
“We … chose New Dayang after carefully studying their new design Crown 64, a ship which offers many superiorities and good specs,” Gunerhan said.
“We hope New Dayang will also become one of our major shipyards in the future in China for our other projects.”
Such projects may very well be forthcoming, as Densay relies predominantly on newbuidings to fuel its fleet growth.
The company has a history of about 20 bulker newbuilding orders since 2010 — more than half its active fleet of 37 bulkers and two tankers in the water.
China is not the only country where Densay likes ordering tonnage: Japan’s Imabari Shipbuilding, Minaminippon Shipbuilding, Shimanami Shipyard and I-S Shipyard also feature prominently in its orderbook.
According to VesselsValue, Densay has three ultramax deliveries outstanding at Imabari, scheduled for completion in 2023 and 2024.
VesselsValue also credits Densay with a 40,000-dwt handysize newbuilding at Imabari, ordered in February and due for delivery in 2025.
S&P action
Densay does not rely exclusively on newbuildings to fuel its fleet growth, however. It also likes pouncing on secondhand tonnage whenever it sees a suitable candidate.
Its latest move in that arena was in January, when it emerged as the owner of the 177,200-dwt Aquahope (renamed SSI Inevitable, built 2007).
This was a capesize that GoodBulk was reported as having sold the month before for about $18m.
Densay’s other secondhand acquisitions last year included a pair of nine-year-old kamsarmaxes from Norwegian tycoon John Fredriksen, one 11-year-old handysize from Nippo Shipping, and a nine-year-old supramax from Singapore interests.
