Greek shipowner Brave Maritime, one of the earliest capesize investors in the ongoing shipping cycle, is turning its attention to smaller vessels to maintain its bulker expansion drive.
Broking and market sources are tying the private arm of the Vafias shipping family to two separate transactions for a pair of mid-aged supramaxes.
Managers at the Athens-based company were not available to comment but some evidence suggests that at least one of the two deals is already in the bag.
The Equasis database shows the 55,600-dwt dwt Melia 1 (built 2011) in the Brave fleet under its new name, Supra Duke.
Brokers had reported last month that the ship’s then-owner, United Arab Emirates-based Koban Shipping, sold the vessel to undisclosed interests for about $17m.
The second ship tied to the Greek owner is the 55,800-dwt Aulac Vanguard (built 2012).
Clarksons reports that the ship, which is currently listed with Vietnam-based Aulac Corp, was sold to undisclosed buyers for $18.8m.
Brave is not only known to be an avid fan of Japanese-built tonnage of the kind that both the Melia 1 and the Aulac Vanguard are, but also to be an ardent believer in the bulker market.
Starting to invest in such ships very early in the cycle, the company stepped on the gas even more towards the end of 2022 — between November of that year and September 2023, Brave bought nine bulkers, including seven capesizes.
However, as prices for such large ships started peaking, the Vafias family’s buying focus quietly shifted to smaller sizes.
Brave emerged in recent weeks as the new owner of two kamsarmaxes that had been reported sold to undisclosed owners at the end of October for about $31m in total — Agricore Shipping’s 82,300-dwt ASL Neptune (renamed Eco Czar, built 2009) and the South Korean-held STL Miracle (renamed Eco Sikousis, built 2008).
Confirmation of the Melia 1 and Aulac Vanguard supramax deals would provide further evidence of Brave’s turn towards smaller ships and push the size of its bulker fleet towards the 25-ship mark.
The Vafias family also has considerable shipping assets in tankers and LPG carriers through private arm Stealth Maritime, as well as its publicly listed companies StealthGas, Imperial Petroleum and C3is.
The Vafias Group as a whole has about 80 ships on the water.
