Greece’s Goldenport Shipmanagement has booked dry bulk newbuildings at its favoured Chinese yard, for the first time in more than four years.
The company has ordered a pair of firm 63,800-dwt ships at Cosco Shipping Heavy Industry (CHI) Yangzhou.
The units, Hull Nos 806 and 807, are to be delivered in the first quarter of 2020.
Goldenport is no stranger to Cosco. It placed its last dry bulk order there, for five handysizes in the spring of 2014.
They were all delivered by 2017 and are still in the Athens-based company’s fleet.
“We are pleased with the past performance and quality of CHI Yangzhou and hence proceeded to place further orders there,” Goldenport chief executive John Dragnis told TradeWinds in an email, confirming the order.
CHI Yangzhou is building ultramaxes for other owners too. Tomini Shipping and Union Maritime each have three such vessels under construction there, according to Clarksons, due for delivery in 2019 and 2020.
Goldenport’s contracts were concluded below the radar in the last quarter of 2018 and have become effective since.
They include no options for further vessels. Other details, such as pricing, have not transpired.
VesselsValue lists the last-done price for a Chinese-built ultramax newbuilding at $27m, based on deals concluded in November.
Values have remained steady since then, with Clarksons’ assessment for a modern ultramax unchanged at $26m.
The ultramax pair is a stand-alone project, not part of any “major” expansion plan in the dry sector, Dragnis said. That sets it apart from his family’s much more ambitious newbuilding plans on the tanker front.
Dragnis tanker arm OceanGold inked a string of MR and LR crude and product tankers last year, to be built at STX Offshore & Shipbuilding and Daehan Shipbuilding.
They are part of a joint project with Gunvor and Maas Capital called ClearOcean Tankers.
The ultramax order shows Dragnis remains alert to any opportunities that might arise on the dry bulk front.
“We remain committed in the dry segment of the business and will continue to pursue opportunities on a selective basis,” he said.
The two newbuildings will be among the biggest vessels in Goldenport’s dry bulk fleet, which currently consists of one post-panamax, five supramax and six handysize ships.
Goldenport sold two bulkers on the secondhand market last year.
One of these deals, for the 76,600-dwt panamax Madeleine (built 2006), was a successful asset play that fetched an estimated profit of more than $7m.
