CMB Financial Leasing has acquired the four-ship multipurpose (MPP) carrier fleet of NSC Holding's GMB Maritime Liner Services.
Chinese financial sources said the supramax-sized MPP ships are for three-year charter to Guangzhou-based Cosco Shipping Specialised Carriers, the project and industrial-oriented branch of the Cosco Group.
The ships are to be managed by the group's Tianjin Cosco Bulk Shipmanagement subsidiary, which announced the deal to Chinese media in connection with the delivery of the first ship at Jebel Ali.
The handover was the Tianjin-based ship manager's first overseas delivery and crew change since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.
GMB is an MPP subsidiary of NSC, a diversified German ship operator.
"In general we do not report about what we are doing but since you know this, I can confirm it," said NSC chartering director Brian Lubbers.
He would not be drawn on price, citing confidentiality clauses.
Shipping database VesselsValue puts the value of the ships at $34m altogether.
Lubbers confirmed that the 53,000-dwt GMB Athena (built 2010), has already been delivered. Two more will be handed over this year and a fourth early next year.
The other ships are the 53,000-dwt GMB Asteria (built 2010), GMB Alcmene and GMB Artemis (both built 2009).
The four open-hatch vessels built at Zhoushan Wuzhou are described "ultra MPPs". GMB uses them in its main business of Europe-Middle East-South Asia semi-liner trading with steel pipe, project cargoes and forest products, according to its website.
Cosco Shipping Specialised Carriers is expected to use them primarily in its wood-pulp business, for which it is also building a series of specialised ultramax-sized ships.
The sale of GMB's owned tonnage does not mean an exit as an operator.
"They will continue operating using market tonnage," said Lubbers.
Officials of Shanghai-based CMB Financial Leasing declined to comment on the deal.
An official of Cosco Shipping Specialised Carriers did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and sources said the company is keen to keep a low profile on the deal.
The deal is unusual from the buyer's perspective because of the short duration of the charter.
CMB is not a speculative buyer or an operator of its financially owned tonnage, and three-year employment would not normally be enough to support an acquisition.
Sources said Cosco Shipping Specialised Carriers has not formally agreed to anything longer than the three-year charter term but worked together with CMB to acquire the ships on the understanding that the charters will be renewed.
TradeWinds reported in October that Cosco China Shipping had pulled the plug on outside lease financing and directed subsidiaries to look to Cosco's on Hong Kong-based lease financing outfit, Oriental Fleet International (OFI).
A prominent finance executive said at the time that the reasons for the policy was not permanent but conditioned by opportunities in the current financial market. He said he expected that if financial conditions are different next year, "[Cosco] could come back to the leasing market".
But the report of a Cosco policy limiting third-party lease financing has been hotly disputed in Chinese ship finance circles.
Cosco China Shipping officials have denied that the October report was true, without detailed comment.
