Analysts expect Greece’s Navios Maritime Partners to walk away from container ship charters to HMM in search of better rates.
The Angeliki Frangou-led company has five 2006-built, 6,800-teu panamaxes fixed to the South Korean operator until the end of 2023.
But the deals come with options for a further five years at $21,000 per day.
“While the five-year options provide valuable downside protection, we expect Navios Partners to walk away from these and opt for forward fixtures this year,” analysts Peder Nicolai Jarlsby, Erik Gabriel Hovi and Ulrik Mannhart said.
They described the optional rate as “just a fraction of potential forward fixtures in the prevailing market”.
There have been no fresh fixtures in this segment for a while due to a continued dearth of tonnage, but two panamaxes of 5,000 teu were fixed for five years at a whopping $60,000 per day in record markets.
Navios Partners has fixed out 98% of its container vessel days in 2022 at an average rate of $33,500 per day, Fearnleys calculates.
About 77% of 2023 days have also been secured, leaving “limited room for triggers on chartering updates in a boiling hot container market at first sight”, the analysts said.
But the HMM vessels give Navios Partners a chance to capitalise, they added.
Navios Partners recently sold two 16-year-old boxships for a combined $220m.
More sales possible?
Considering the age of the HMM-chartered vessels, Fearnleys believes further divestments could be on the table: “We estimate the charter-free value of the vessels to be $102m.”
In February, Israeli liner operator Zim took 13 Navios Partners container ships on charter in deals worth about $870m.
It fixed five secondhand vessels of 3,500 teu to 4,360 teu for four-and-a-half years, as well as eight 5,300-teu wide-beam vessels on charters for a little over five years.
