Chinese bulker owner and operator EGPN Bulk Carrier has taken its quest to become a tanker player one step further with the purchase of a former Xihe Holdings product tanker.
Multiple brokers have identified EGPN as the buyer of the MR2-type, 50,400-dwt product tanker Ocean Pluto (built 2007), which was reported sold to Chinese interests at the end of December for $9.9m.
Beijing-headquartered EGPN was launched in 2014 as a dry cargo operator but turned shipowner three years ago through a series of secondhand bulker buys.
The company moved into tanker owning in late 2021 when it acquired a VLCC from Hong Kong's Tai Chong Cheang Steamship, and a 12,200-dwt chemical tanker from Shikoku Kaiun of Japan.
EGPN director Zhang Yun said at the time these initial tanker purchases were made that the rationale behind the decision to buy tankers was because the tanker and bulker markets were at different stages of their respective market cycles.
Zhang said that while the high asset values of bulk carriers could resent potential risks if bought in a booming market, tanker values were low and a rebound in the wet trade was imminent due to the recovery in oil consumption.
Zhang indicated that EGPN planned to buy an additional two chemical tankers.
The company has since taken delivery of its VLCC, the 306,000-dwt Eastern Juniper (built 2007). The Chinese-flagged crude carrier is owned under a Singapore-registered single-ship entity and managed out of Hong Kong by Anglo-Eastern Tanker Management.
The ship, the former KHK Vision, was reported by VesselsValue as having been acquired for $33m.
EGPN is still waiting on delivery of both the Ocean Pluto and its small chemical tanker, the 12,200-dwt Crane Argo (built 2010), which VesselsValue indicates was sold for $7.2m.
On the dry bulk front EGPN owns and operates six supramax bulkers together with a panamax and a capesize bulker.
In April 2021, the company ordered its first newbuilding, an 82,000-dwt kamsarmax bulker at Chengxi Shipyard that is due for delivery in August.
TradeWinds was unable to reach Zhang for comment on the Ocean Pluto purchase and further tanker acquisition plans.
