Danish owner and operator Norden has booked six ultramax bulkers for construction at Dalian COSCO KHI Ship Engineering (DACKS) for delivery in the next two to three years.
No price has been revealed for the 64,000 dwt newbuilds that will run on both traditional marine oil and biofuel and join the portfolio of Norden-owned and leased bulkers and product tankers managed by the company’s Assets & Logistics unit which has since 2020 carried out over 135 asset plays.
Norden held approximately six bulkers at the end of the first quarter of this year, after significantly reducing its owned dry cargo fleet last year. However, the business has been progressively increasing its exposure to this sector, and in March signaled its entry into the capesize segment by acquiring four ships in two seperate deals.
“Placing this newbuilding order is an integrated part of our asset trading strategy, whereby we can add dry cargo capacity with future delivery, which we think will be interesting both from a freight and asset value perspective. This is also supported by the current low orderbook which will see very few deliveries between now and the delivery of these vessels,” said Henrik Lykkegaard Madsen, head of asset management at Norden.
