Seanergy Maritime plans to hold onto its purse strings while waiting for the down capesize market to rebound.
The Athens-based company is holding off on any fleet expansion plans while rates for the large ships remain very low following the late January failure of one of Vale's tailing dams.
Seanergy is requiring charterers to cover $12.5m in scrubber costs but still wants to see the market recover before writing cheques for more ships, chief executive Tsantanis says.
"Right now, overall, we would rather take a wait-and-see approach to see the market recover, which we think is going to happen soon, and then we will see what kind of expansion plans we will do," he said during the company's fourth-quarter earnings call.
Rates for capesize dry bulk vessels have dropped like a stone over the past three months to $5,306 today from $13,288, according to the Baltic Exchange.
Seanergy reported a $3.19m loss for the quarter versus a $116,000 deficit a year earlier.
The company has 10 capesizes, half of which are earmarked for scrubbers, after selling two supramaxes and buying a capaesize during the fourth quarter.
