The Teo family’s shipping line has bolstered its bottom line with another sale to a Chinese leasing house. The Teos control Pacific International Lines (PIL), best known for its container business, but a company that has interests in other segments too.

Brokers tell Splash that PIL has sold two seven-year-old capesizes – the Shagang Hongfa and Shagang Honchang – for $33m each to an unidentified Chinese leasing house. The deal comes with a time charter back to PIL at $20,000 a day. The ships are on charter to Shagang, a Chinese steel mill with shipping operations in Singapore, through to September 2021.

In October Chinese financial leasing house Minsheng Financial Leasing acquired five boxships from PIL in an en bloc deal worth $88.9m, according to broking sources.

These two deals with Chinese leasors will help PIL restore its battered balance sheet. The company reported a net loss of $141.2m for the first half of this year, compared to net profit of $26.4m during the same period of last year.