Chinese shipowner Qingdao Pengteng International has sold one of its feeder-size container ships for recycling in its latest move of a sector purge that has seen the company sell 15 newer vessels for further trading so far in 2023.
Cash buyers reported over the weekend that Qingdao Pengteng sold the 1,504-teu Lucky Dragon (built 1996) for recycling on an “as is” basis in Singapore at $512 per ldt, or $4.18m in total.
Market sources told TradeWinds that the ship recently completed a charter to French liner operator CMA CGM.
The Lucky Dragon is the 16th container ship that Qingdao Pengteng has sold since the beginning of 2023.
Throughout the year, the company has steadily sold a total of 15 container ships for further trading, while at the same earning substantial asset gains.
The majority of the vessels sold — 11 in total — were newbuilding resales from Japanese and Chinese shipyards that netted the company profits of more than $100m.
The recent sales have left the company with seven feeder-size container ships built between 2000 and 2022. Three more 2,500-teu container ships and two 1,100-teu container ships are scheduled to be delivered from Chinese shipbuilders by the end of 2024.
Container sector sources familiar with Qingdao Pengteng told TradeWinds in August that the company is both an asset player and tonnage provider, with its ships chartered out to a variety of well-known Chinese and international liner players.
Founded in 1999 with a small fleet of general cargo ships and bulk carriers, the company made its first container ship foray in 2016, and between then and the end of 2021, acquired no less than 27 secondhand feeder-size container ships.
The company then turned its attention to newbuildings, ordering no less than 24 container ships of between 1,100 teu and 2,500 teu during 2021 and 2022.
Quick to take advantage of asset play opportunities, Qingdao Pengteng began selling its secondhand container ships when values for such vessels went into the stratosphere in 2021. An additional three were sold to Minsheng Financial Leasing and leased back.
In 2022, the company sold another 10 ships — a mix of newbuildings and older ships.
The Lucky Dragon was one of three vessels that cash buyers reported as being sold for recycling over the past week.
Also reported sold were Turkish owner One Navigation’s 45,500-dwt bulker carrier One Destiny (built 1995), which went for $535 per ldt, or $4.1m on a delivered Alang basis, and TCO Marine’s 10,300-gt pipe-laying barge Comanche (built 1969), sold for $390 per ldt, or $3.64m on an “as is” basis in Batam, where it has been laid up for the past 10 years.
