Hong Kong's Pacific Basin has become the latest owner to take advantage of the big Scorpio Bulkers fleet sale.
The company said it is paying $67m for four ultramaxes from the US-listed owner, which is exiting the bulker sector as it moves into offshore wind ship operations.
The vessels sold are the 61,000-dwt SBI Bravo, SBI Antares, SBI Hydra and SBI Maia (all built 2015). Scorpio confirmed the sale in a statement, and said it will have 32 owned ships left after the latest deal.
VesselsValue assesses the quartet as worth around $66m.
They are listed as owned by AVIC Leasing of China and chartered back to Scorpio.
Pacific Basin is funding the move from its cash reserves.
'Trading up'
The Hong Kong company said the deal is consistent with its plan to grow and renew the fleet.
It is focusing on larger, high-quality, modern secondhand acquisitions, especially supramaxes and ultramaxes.
This involves "trading up" its smaller, older handysizes, Pacific Basin said.
The new owner said the vessels presented "an excellent opportunity" to expand the fleet at "an attractive price".
The bulkers were built at Nantong Cosco KHI Ship Engineering in China and are fitted with both scrubbers and ballast water treatment systems. Two are equipped to carry logs.
Pacific Basin has 235 dry bulk ships, of which 116 are owned and the rest chartered.
Earlier this month, TradeWinds reported that Dimitris Procopiou-led Centrofin Management had landed the biggest single coup so far in the ongoing fleet sale of Scorpio Bulkers.
Shipping markets in Greece said the Athens-based company was behind the purchase of a kamsarmax quartet announced by Scorpio.
The ships in question were the 81,200-dwt sisters SBI Parapara, SBI Jive, SBI Swing and SBI Mazurka (all built 2017).
Monaco-based Scorpio separately sold a fifth ship as well, the 81,200-dwt SBI Reggae (built 2016). Market sources believe that vessel has gone to north African interests.
Including two sales early in 2020, Scorpio has now offloaded 23 bulkers so far this year, from ultramax to kamsarmax size and built between 2014 and 2017.
Greeks hungry for tonnage
Greeks have been confirmed or are believed to have bought as many as 12 of them. Among the confirmed buyers are Titan Maritime, which acquired two Scorpio ships. Also, Alpha Bulkers, Globus Maritime and Blue Seas have each bought one of the vessels.
In August, Emanuele Lauro-led Scorpio Bulkers said it was ordering up to four wind turbine installation vessels at South Korea's Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering at a cost of up to $290m each.
Scorpio is using proceeds from the sale of the bulker fleet to generate cash liquidity for the effort, but has no "material" payments due to the shipyard in the near term.
