Germany’s Reederei Nord cashed in on the staggering rise in boxship prices with the sale of a pair of baby panamaxes for three times what a sistership fetched just a few months ago.
The Hamburg-based owner is hiving of the 3,586-teu Nordsummer (built 2007) and Nordautumn (built 2008) for an en-bloc price of at least $66m.
That is about three times what the company netted in December for the 3,586-teu sistership AS Nadia (ex-Nordspring, built 2007).
The ex-Nordspring was sold for less than $11m to Oslo-listed tonnage provider MPC Container Ships (MPCC).
The sale of the two sisterships reflects the massive escalation in secondhand values and marks a new benchmark in the small boxship sector.
Nord, which is owned by Christian and Nikolaus Oldendorff, is believed to have sold the vessels to a liner operator that needs the tonnage in a fevered charter market.
The two vessels are currently on charter to liner operator CMA CGM, which is facing a sharp rise in charter costs.
Barely a year ago, the French line was able to secure the two Nord vessels for short and flexible charter periods for as little as $7,750 per day.
Charter rates and periods have risen fourfold since then to more than $30,000 per day for durations of three years.
That has forced CMA CGM to pay big time for the 3,534-teu Bomar Praia (built 2009), which it has taken for three years at $31,500 per day.
Charter or buy?
Rival operator Maersk is paying even more to take the 3,534-teu sisterships TRF Pescara (built 2010) and Spil Caya (built 2009).
The Danish giant is taking the two ships for three and a half years at rates of $34,000 and $35,500 per day, respectively.
Lines therefore need to pay about $36m to charter these ships over three years, which is roughly equivalent to the cost of purchasing a secondhand vessel.
That helped fuel boxship values, which rose faster in the last six months than at any time over the past two decades.
Asset value gains led to a surge of vessel sales controlled by German banks or private equity partners.
Nord itself is estimated to have sold six to eight boxships of between 1,730 teu to 3,500 teu in the past six to eight months.
“Germany will soon be sold out,” one source said.
