Oslo finance man and shipowner Harald Moraeus-Hanssen has reinvested cash raised from sales of container ships on tanker and bulk carrier newbuildings.
Moraeus-Hanssen’s Uthalden Maritime, with a diverse fleet spanning chemical tankers, midsize bulkers and offshore vessels, has seven newbuildings currently on order.
They include two ultramaxes, three handysize chemical tankers and two aframax product tankers.
Uthalden’s website shows China’s Jiangsu New Hantong Heavy Industry is building the 114,000-dwt LR2 tankers.
The Norwegian company ordered the pair of methanol-ready and scrubber-fitted newbuildings early last year and is due to take delivery of the first vessel, to be named MH Highlander, at the end of this year. A second ship, the MH Gladiator, will follow in May 2025.
Delivery of the MH Highlander will mark Uthalden’s debut in the LR2 segment.
The price of the product tanker newbuildings has not been revealed, but brokers suggested that an LR tanker ordered at Jiangsu Hantong during the first quarter of last year would cost between $62m and $63m.
On the bulker front, Uthalden has two 63,500-dwt ships on order at Jiangsu Haitong Offshore Engineering Equipment for delivery in 2025.
Brokers believed the firm penned the bulker deal a few months ago and is likely to have paid between $32m and $34m per ship.
In addition to the newbuildings at Jiangsu New Hantong and Jiangsu Haitong, Uthalden has three 19,500-dwt chemical tankers under construction at Japan’s Usuki Shipyard.
Two chemical tankers, with Hull Nos H-1796 and U-1803, are slated to be delivered this year. The third, Hull No U-1804, is scheduled for handover in 2025.
In sale-and-purchase activity, Uthalden sold four boxships between late 2022 and mid-2023.
The vessels were the 3,388-teu Toro (ex-Noro, built 2007), the 6,494-teu BF Hamburg (ex-MH Hamburg, built 2009), and the 4,250-teu MSC Basel V (ex-Rio Cadiz) and MSC Bern V (ex-Rio Charleston, both 2008 built).
Uthalden is now left with the 3,500-teu Rio Kobe (built 2009) and 1,700-teu Songa Wolf (built 2007).
Its existing fleet also includes five bulk carriers, one car carrier, two chemical tankers, two drill ships and a few offshore supply vessels.
