Boxship owners including Zodiac Maritime and Thenamaris are hiving off older vessels in what are likely to be hugely profitable deals.
The sales coincide with a move by US investment fund Oaktree Capital Management to cash in on part of its investment in wide-beam boxships.
Among the recent deals is the acquisition by Germany company D Oltmann Reederei of its largest boxship to date.
The Bremen shipowner has purchased the 8,845-teu Maersk Semarang (built 2007) from Eyal Ofer's London-based Zodiac.
The vessel is one of two vessels that Zodiac acquired in September 2016 for a very low benchmark of around $30m en bloc.
Today, the Maersk Semarang has a fair market value of around $26.3m, according to MSI Horizon, which suggests that Zodiac will making a handsome profit on the sale.
Oltmann is understood to have acquired the vessel with the balance of a five-year charter to AP Moller-Maersk at relatively low rates until the middle of next year.
The purchase brings the German owner's fleet to eight containerships of between 5,029 teu and 8,845 teu.
The recovery of values for panamax and post-panamax boxships has led a handful of mainly Greek owners to spin off vessels acquired earlier in the year.
Martinos family company Thenamaris is believed to be profiting from the sale of the 4,892-teu Seamelody (ex-San Franscisco II, built 2009).
Thenamaris acquired the vessel in January for around $10m from German owner Conti Reederei.
It is reportedly selling the vessel to Middle Eastern interests for about $18m.
A successful sale would leave Thenamaris with three containerships, including the 5,071-teu Seasmile (built 2013) and Seadream (built 2014) and the 1,732-teu Seaboxer III (built 2010).
The deal bears some similarity to the sale by Greek interests earlier in the month of the 6,350-teu Partner Star (ex MOL Partner, built 2005).
The vessel was reported sold to Wan Hai Lines for $24.5m, having been acquired five months previously for around $10m.
Oaktree looks for door
The rising market is leading some private equity players that bought into the box sector several years ago to exit the market.
Brokers reported that French operator CMA CGM is negotiating to buy the 5,466-teu Wide India (built 2015) and Wide Alpha (built 2014) for around $38.5m each.
The vessels are owned by Green Containership Group, an Oaktree-controlled platform that owns wide-beam boxships that were delivered in 2014 and 2015.
German sources close to the deal played down reports that the vessels have been sold, but they confirmed that Oaktree is looking to sell two of its series of eight wide-beam containerships.
Other financial players have already trimmed their stake in the boxship sector.
Earlier this month, US merchant bank AMA Capital Partners sold the 1,756-teu Nordemilia and Nordclaire (both built 2016) for around $33.8m en bloc.
More recently, Reederei Nord sold two more baby-panamax boxships. The 3,586-teu Nordwinter (built 2008) and Nordspring (built 2007) are understood to have been sold for about $22m en bloc to Oslo-listed MPC Container Ships.
Another Oslo-listed entity, Borealis Finance, has paid $11.6m to purchase the 3,635-teu Elbsun (ex-Lilly Schulte, built 2012).
