One of Hong Kong’s many conservative bulker owners, Chellaram Shipping, is quietly rejuvenating its fleet, both adding and selling ships. CEO Vishal Khurana has been involved in a string of deals this spring.
On the buying side, Chelleram has recently emerged as the taker of a ship sold by Scorpio, the 2018-built kamsarmax SBI Lynx for $22.25m. This ship has been renamed Darya Neeti, and its value has increased by approximately $5m since it was delivered in the first quarter of the year.
Chelleram has also added an ultramax, fresh from the slipway, the Darya Heera, formerly called Bohai Venture. CMB Financial Leasing is noted as the seller of this ship.
Unconfirmed sources also say that Cellaram has also been involved in some resales from Tsuneishi and Yangzijiang.
Simultaneously as the owner is seeking modern bargains, the outfit has also offloaded several ships. It started the year by offloading the 2008-built, 56,000 dwt supramax, Darya Mahesh for $9.5m. Now a second deal has come to light with the sale of the year younger sister ship, Darya Lakshmi, for $14.24m.
Chellaram Shipping can trace its roots back to Madras in India where in 1916 the late Kishinchand Chellaram, founder of the group, established a textile business.
