Diana Shipping says it has negotiated amendments to contracts with China Shipbuilding Trading Company and Jiangnan Shipyard to reduce the contract price and delay the delivery date of two 208,500 dwt newcastlemax dry bulk carriers under construction at the yard.
The vessels, to be named San Francisco and Newport News, were originally ordered at a price of $48.7m each, however the yard has agreed to reduce the price by $1m for each vessel.
The pair of newcastlemaxes are scheduled for delivery on January 4, 2017. San Francisco was tied up on charter earlier this month to Singapore’s Koch Shipping for 12-16 months at a gross rate of $11,750 per day.
Diana has now also sealed a time charter contract for the other newbuild, Newport News, to SwissMarine Services in Geneva for a 22-26 month period at a daily gross charter rate of 24% above the BCI_2014 average of the five pre-determined time charter routes as published by the Baltic Exchange. The charter will commence on January 9, 2017.
The company has also fixed two panamax bulkers, Leto and Naias, on time charter to Glencore Agriculture. Leto has been chartered for a period of 9-13 months at a gross rate of $7,750 per day, while Naias has been chartered for a 7-10 month period at $7,500 per day. The charters commence on December 30 and December 27 respectively, and are expected to generate $3.56m in gross revenue based on the minimum time charter periods.
