Thenamaris asset sale and fleet-renewal drive is acquiring ever bigger dimensions.
The Greek shipping giant disclosed that its newbuilding orderbook at Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding (SWS) in China has reached six 114,000-dwt product tankers.
TradeWinds reported in March how the Nikolas Martinos-led company returned to the Chinese shipyard for the first time in a decade for two firm and one optional vessel of that type.
In April, TradeWinds reported that the outfit’s newbuilding tally had climbed to four.
However, the company’s website now shows it as having a full six such vessels under construction at SWS.
The ships — Hull Nos H1572 to H1575, H1587 and H1588 — will be equipped with scrubbers and are due for delivery between March and December 2025.
Market players said Thenamaris picked SWS because it was attracted by the early delivery dates on offer at the Chinese builder’s recently resuscitated Shanghai Shipyard.
The high-specification ships were then said to be costing $63.5m apiece.
Separately, Thenamaris has two 115,000-dwt tankers under construction at Hyundai Vietnam Shipbuilding, also due for delivery in 2025, and to be named the Seaborn and Seatrust, respectively.
Hyundai Vietnam is building bulkers for Thenamaris as well — four ultramaxes due for delivery in 2024 and 2025.
Thenamaris — a shipping giant with 93 ships of every type on the water (see graph) — is probably very comfortable with cash at the moment to fund its newbuilding growth.
As a result of the trade rerouting in the wake of the war in Ukraine, the company’s 55 tankers are benefiting from robust freight rates.
At the same time, tanker vessels are soaring in value, allowing Thenamaris to offload its oldest ships at prices that seemed unimaginable before 2022.
In the 12 months to the end of March, the company sold 17 ageing tankers and one bulker on the secondhand market in deals worth more than $480m, based on TradeWinds’ estimates.
According to information by Athens-based brokers that the company declined to comment on, Thenamaris is now in the process of selling another tanker — the 105,300-dwt Seascout (built 2004) — to undisclosed buyers for $27m.
The ice-class ship had been trading with Thenamaris since its delivery as a newbuilding from Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries.
It is one of the company’s three oldest tankers alongside the sister ship Isabella, and the 115,600-dwt Seaqueen (built 2004).
Confirmation of the Seascout sale would push Thenamaris’ gross proceeds from secondhand ship sales since March 2022 past the $500m mark.
In other Greek, non-aframax sales, secretive Edge Maritime is said to be selling the 159,200-dwt Amoroza (built 2001) to undisclosed buyers for between $33m and $36m.
This would be an asset play after the company bought that ship in January 2020 for $17.8m. This is not the first time the Amoroza has been reported as sold. In January, brokers said once more that the ship was changing hands for a much lower sum of $27m.
In smaller tankers, Salonitis family company Salmar Shipping is said to be selling the 20,000-dwt Fortitude (built 2004) to undisclosed buyers for $14.75m. That ship used to trade with Japanese interests before the Greek company bought it for about $12.8m in 2017.
In March, Salmar profitably divested a much bigger ship — the 159,400-dwt suezmax Okeanos (built 2003). After its sale at a $16m markup, the suezmax emerged this month under the name of Narcissus in the fleet of China-based Taihong Shipping.
