After a hefty January with a stream of capes hitting the market and a handful of deals close to completion, the month of February has been dull for both buyers and sellers with plenty of ships failing to find new owners.
The year started with owners of both vintage ships and more modern tonnage finding buyers. Now Splash understand some of the first vintage ships sold this year, either dropped in price, or failed.
GoodBulk was first, reportedly selling the 2003-built 171,000 dwt Aquajoy. The price tag was originally $11.3m, but it failed and fixed again fetching half a million less. In a comparable deal to the Aquajoy, the one year older, slightly smaller vessel, Norfolk was nearly sold by US-listed Diana Shipping for $9.35m. This deal also just failed.
Looking at cape sales for ships around 10 years of age, plenty of owners are trying their luck, but few deals are materialising.
Brokers tell Splash Singapore’s STC Shipping’s only cape, the 12-year-old Mineral Hokkaido, is inviting offers, and one report says the ship is sold over the weekend for just over $16m. Other owners trying their luck include Hong Kong cape specialist Peter Mok, and his Vision Ship Management who is attempting to sell one of its six Chinese-built capes, the Dalian-built 180,300 dwt Xin Bin Hai. So too is another cape specialist, Alma Maritime, who is in the process of offloading the Korean-built, Cape Leonidas.
