New York-listed Diana has nearly $275m in cash and cash equivalents and will invest between $15m and $20m soon on one or two new vessels, executives say.

“We will continue to take decisive actions to enhance shareholders value by maintaining strong financial resources, continue to invest in the growth of our fleet and managing the business in a prudent manner throughout a challenging dry bulk market cycle,” chief executive Simeon Palios said on the company’s second quarter conference call.

Asked by analysts where it saw the best opportunities, Palios said: “We think that the market today is that the resale are an attraction to us.”

Three of Diana’s last four purchases have been resales, the last of which was a $43m buy from Scorpio Bulkers in April. It also purchased the 82,800-dwt Torm Island (built 2010) in the same week.

Valemaxes not an option

President Stacey Margaronis explains the owner sees resale ships available, however, he rules out a move into the Valemax arena despite the first of the giant vessels now making a laden call in China.

Margaronis said Diana was little bit sceptical regarding the 400,000-dwt ships.

“Quite honestly, I think that the Newcastlemax is a good animal to have as opposed to the ore carrier,” Margaronis said. “So the 400,000 vessel is at the mercy of iron ore, it doesn’t have the flexibility of being able to load coal for example because of the cubic capacity. So, we do prefer Newcastlemax.”

Outlook brighter?

Diana is known to be a reserved owner, a stance which saw it dubbed the “bad news bears” in 2013. However, its call contained hints of a brightening market view.

“We at Dianna Shipping will continue to seek investment opportunities in a world of lower and lower asset value,” Margaronis said on the call.

“And last, it seems that the seeds have been sown for potential balance between supply and demand leading to a lasting increase vessels earnings. The facts indicate that the newbuilding orders are going down; scrapping has gone up, especially the beginning of the year and ship financing is getting more and more scarce. This may lead someone to believe that we’re heading towards substantial market improvement.

“However, this depends on whether there will be higher demand to support this positive trend. All this has happened, could we see a strong turnaround in the fortunes of dry bulk ship, not much different from what we’re witnessing today in the tanker industry?”

Diana booked earnings per share of $0.19 in the second quarter, exactly as analysts had forecast.

“Given the still weak dry bulk shipping market environment and murky outlook, yet with asset values still at exceedingly depressed levels, we believe Diana's strong balance sheet and ability to continue to make acquisitions over the next 12-18 months make the current risk/reward compelling,” said Doug Mavrinac of Jefferies.