Thenamaris is continuing efforts to expand and renew its tanker and bulker fleets, this time with the purchase of a Chinese-controlled VLCC.
TradeWinds has already reported about the Martinos family company ordering four MR tankers, which are due for delivery next year.
However, when it comes to bigger oil carriers, Thenamaris seems to prefer 11-year-old ships purchased on the secondhand market.
According to brokers, Thenamaris has agreed to spend $37.5m on the 297,300-dwt VLCC tanker New Creation (built 2009). The company declined to comment on the reports.
The VLCC is the oldest Chinese-built vessel in the huge tanker fleet of China VLCC. The Hong Kong-based company, which is part of state-backed China Merchants Energy Shipping, is known to have tried to offload the New Creation before.
In position for recovery?
Brokers reported that China VLCC was in talks to sell the ship once more in April last year, alongside the 297,600-dwt New Coral (built 2010) and the 296,100-dwt New Talisman (built 2009). However, no such deal materialised.
The Chinese company has six VLCC newbuildings under construction.
Reports of Thenamaris swooping on the New Creation emerges just a couple of weeks after reports that the Greek company homed in on the 108,900-dwt LR2 Ocean Voyager (built 2009) for $17.2m. The ship is one of several vessels sold by Singapore’s Xihe Group.
Thenamaris is known for making shrewd moves in the secondhand market. Its acquisitions have been in line with a wider trend that has seen shipowners pouncing on tanker tonnage, despite freight rates being in the doldrums due to poor demand in Covid-stricken economies.
However, buyers are still rushing into the market to position themselves for a recovery that several observers expect to begin in the second half of the year.
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Other factors may boost the market as well. A sale-and-purchase broker in Athens said several market participants expect the new US administration to curb shale oil production in the country, thus creating demand for seaborne crude imports in the world's biggest oil-consuming economy.
Thenamaris’ tanker expansion goes hand in hand with parallel moves to offload ageing tonnage. In line with a spate of other Greek tanker sales to Asian buyers, Thenamaris agreed earlier this year to sell the 164,200-dwt suezmax Searacer (built 2002) to clients of Vietnam’s Sao Viet Petrol Transportation. The ship has been renamed Innova.
The Greek company has also offloaded the 149,900-dwt suezmax Seaprince (built 2002) to Chinese-based players, which have renamed it Green Sea.
Thenamaris' 46,200-dwt MR tanker Seabright (built 2006) has been circulating for sale since February.
The outfit's tanker moves have been mirrored in the dry bulk market. In December last year, Thenamaris completed its first bulker purchase since 2016 when it acquired the 180,100-dwt Tiger Guangdong (built 2011), which has been renamed Sealeader II.
The company ratcheted up its bulker expansion in February with an order for a pair of 82,000-dwt kamsarmax newbuildings at Sino-Japanese yard Nantong Cosco KHI Ship Engineering (Nacks).
Its latest reported move in the bulker arena is the purchase of the 81,800-dwt kamsarmax Yangze 16 (built 2019) for $26.5m, although this deal remains unconfirmed.
At the same time, the company sold a pair of supramaxes to Greek peer Vulcanus Maritime for an estimated total of $17m. The 56,900-dwt Seahope II and sistership Seapace (both built 2010) are now trading as the Zografia and Melpomeni.
On the selling side in boxships
In the containership sector, where it has a much smaller exposure than in tankers or bulkers, Thenamaris' priority has been to cash in on rising asset values in a soaring market.
According to London-based brokers, the company agreed earlier this month to sell the 1,732-teu Seaboxer III (built 2010) to CMA CGM for about $15m. The ship has tripled in value since August last year and Thenamaris has owned it since 2010, when it spent $25.5m to buy it as a resale.
In a much more clear-cut boxship asset play in December last year, Thenamaris almost doubled its money by selling the 4,900-teu Seamelody (built 2009) for $18m.
The company acquired the vessel in January 2020 for about $10m from German owner Conti Reederei. The vessel is now listed under ownership of US investment giant Oaktree Capital Management and is trading as the Pinocchio.
