UK shipping fund Tufton Oceanic Assets believes the meteoric rise in containership and bulker markets is slowing.
The London-listed company is continuing to see a rise in its net asset value (NAV), however.
This hit $384m on 30 September, or $1.37 per share, against a trading price of $1.33 in London on Tuesday morning.
The owner of 21 ships said NAV stood at $371.1m, or $1.32 per share, on 31 August. This figure was $322m at the end of June and $284.44m on 31 March.
"The containership and bulker markets continued to strengthen in September, but not as strongly as in the previous few months," the company said.
Because benchmark time-charter rates for the vessel types increased only moderately last month, Tufton's negative charter value increased more slowly than in recent months, to minus $126.7m during September.
This compares with $121.7m at the end of August and only $44.6m in April.
Moving to zero?
Tufton produces this figure as the difference between its legacy charters and current elevated rates.
The charter value will move towards zero as vessels come off older charters and are refixed, however.
The value of the company's fleet if it were charter-free would be $488.3m, while with charters included, the value is $361.6m.
The NAV total return for the quarter based on the estimated September growth is 19.8%, despite the negative movement in its charter values, mainly in July and August.
The company is fully invested but continues to identify attractive vessel purchase opportunities across the boxship, bulker and product tanker spaces.
Tufton said it is eyeing deals for handysize dry cargo carriers, as well as more tankers and "one or more" larger containerships with four-year to seven-year charters already in place.
Earlier this month the company spent $41.2m on two handysize bulkers.
These were acquired at below depreciated replacement cost and are fuel efficient compared with their peer group, Tufton said.
The ships come with fixed-rate time charters for a year, giving an annual net yield of 25%.
