Tor Olav Troim's 2020 Bulkers is to take early delivery of five of its eight newcastlemax newbuildings at a time when rates for the vessels are at the highest level in almost a decade.
China's New Times Shipyard will deliver the 208,000-dwt Bulk Seoul, Bulk Shanghai, and Bulk Sydney two months earlier than scheduled.
The three ships will hit the water respectively in October and November this year and in January 2020.
Bulk Santiago and Bulk Shenzen will both be delivered one month earlier than scheduled in September this year and in January 2020 respectively.
"Construction is proceeding faster than expected," Magnus Halvorsen, chief executive of 2020 Bulkers Management, told TradeWinds on Monday.
"Our orders were in placed September 2017 after a fairly quiet period for the yards with regards to order intake, which is probably why they have been able to allocate enough resources to deliver somewhat ahead of schedule."
Next year
2020 Bulkers expects to have over 2,600 operational ship-days in 2020.
"Given the current rate levels in the capsize market, our ships will generate strong cashflows once delivered, so for us the earlier deliveries is an outright positive as it means earlier cashflow to our investors," Halvorsen told TradeWinds.
2020 Bulkers has three other 208,000-dwt capes on order at the yard.
Bulk Sandefjord will be the first to be delivered, which is slated for August this year.
Bulk Sao Paulo and Bulk Santos will be the last two vessels to be delivered, which is expected in April and May 2020 respectively.
"We have built a lean and capable organisation and are now primarily looking to return capital to our shareholders via dividends as our ships start trading," Halvorsen said on Monday.
"That said, we will always be pragmatic with regards to realising through asset sales or consolidation if an interesting opportunity comes along at a later stage."
Three of the newcastlemax newbuildings — Bulk Sandefjord, Bulk Santiago and Bulk Seoul — will commence timecharters with Koch Supply & Trading on delivery, as TradeWinds has reported.
2020 Bulkers raised significant capital early this year and has upgraded its listing from Oslo's over-the-counter market to the Oslo Axess.
