Dry CargoEurope

French sugar trader creates stir with handy quartet swoop

Hamburg Bulk Carriers is selling off a sizeable part of its fleet to France’s Sucden Group.

In total HBC has sold four handymaxes – all being built at Chinese yard Qingshan for delivery this year and next. The sister ships – all with four 30 ton cranes each – are the Notos Venture, Boreas Venture, Zezphyr Venture and Eurus Venture. No price has been given for the deal but VesselsValue.com, the online ship pricing mechanism, puts the quartet down as worth a combined $41.27m, which Splash estimates is less than half what HBC paid for them when it originally ordered the series.

The ships were originally ordered a couple of years ago when HBC ordered a total of 10 43,500 dwt ships in China. The so called HBC43 design is aimed at shifting minor bulk cargoes.

“The vessel offers a high degree of flexibility to our customers and is considered Best of Class with regards to environmental performance, illustrated by recent A-rating by the vetting organization RightShip,” HBC states on its website.

Paris-based Sucden was founded in 1952 and is a major sugar trader, shipping more than 8m tons a year.

Sam Chambers

Starting out with the Informa Group in 2000 in Hong Kong, Sam Chambers became editor of Maritime Asia magazine as well as East Asia Editor for the world’s oldest newspaper, Lloyd’s List. In 2005 he pursued a freelance career and wrote for a variety of titles including taking on the role of Asia Editor at Seatrade magazine and China correspondent for Supply Chain Asia. His work has also appeared in The Economist, The New York Times, The Sunday Times and The International Herald Tribune.
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