Embattled Rickmers Trust Management has entered into a deed of consent with the Singapore branch of Commerzbank to settle some senior loan facilities, with the trust finally admitting it has sold the seven-year-old India Rickmers panamax boxship.
panamax boxship.Splash was the first to report last month that the 4,250 teu ship had set a new record in demolition terms, becoming the youngest boxship to be sent for scrap. Rickmers Trust subsequently denied the ship had been sold. However, it has now admitted the 2009-built ship had been sold to partially pay back money owed to Commerzbank.
The India Rickmers had previously been on charter to bust Korean line, Hanjin Shipping.
With panamax vessels now worth little more than scrap 2016 has seen record volumes of containerships scrapped.
In the first 10 months of the year a record 500,000 teu has been scrapped, 4.2 times more teu than the scrapping activity for the same months in 2015, according to Bimco.
With the last three months accounting for more than 41% of the total demolition in 2016, the activity is picking up and is primarily generated by the panamax container ships. The demolition of panamax containerships in teu accounts for 47% of the total demolition in 2016.
