Weekly Broker: Deals off as dry bulk suffers multiple blows

The ongoing “bloodbath”, as one owner told Splash today, in the dry bulk freight markets has unsurprisingly seen investors yank their chequebooks from the negotiating table in the past week. Deals are thin on the ground and are unlikely to gain much traction until some time after Chinese New Year when the market has had time to assess a new pricing floor for this shell-shocked sector.

External factors such as floods, cyclones and pig flu have combined with already weak sentiment to send rates off a cliff with the Baltic Dry Index down by more than a third this month.

“On the dry bulk side, a modest flow of transactions was noted these past few days, which is remarkable when taking into account the downward spiral the freight market is currently in. At this point, we can see a shift towards the panamax segment, with interest mostly for vintage units, given the increased number of candidates circulated in the market. All-in-all, with the scene from the side of earnings being rather disappointing for most, it will likely take some time before a more stable picture starts to prevail, both in terms of volume and price levels,” Allied Shipbroking said.

Andreas J. Zachariassen listed a resale deal of two Sasebo-built 84,000 dwt kamsarmax bulkers (hull 854 and hull 855). Greek owner Mylonas Charalambos’ Transmed Shipping sold the two newbuildings to Taiwan’s U-Ming for $64m in total.

Multiple shipbroking houses reported that Italy’s Augustea Group has sold the 2010 Chinese-built post panamax bulker A Navigation to Chinese interests for conversion at $14.9m. Splash understands that Chinese commodity trader Jinchuan Group is likely to be the buyer.

Banchero Costa reported the sale of two vintage panamax bulk carriers. The 1999 vintage Japanese-built 74,000 dwt Reborn was sold by Greek owner Northstar Maritime for around $6.4m to Asian buyers and the 1998 Japanese-built 74,000 dwt Minoan Flame was sold by another Greek owner Modion Maritime to undisclosed interests for a price of $6.25m.

“On the tanker side, things continue to be rather sluggish, with just a handful of transactions coming to light as of late. The only spark in activity seems to have been in the MR segment, where the buying spree that started off back in late 2018 continues to progress, giving an ever more aggressive appetite and approach for this size,” Allied Shipbroking said.

In addition to the sale of Torm’s 2002-built MR2 tanker Torm Amazon and Golden Energy Management’s sale of the 2018-built Energy Trophy, both reported by Splash earlier this week, Banchero Costa and Andreas J. Zachariassen listed an en bloc sale of three 2005 South Korean-built 115,000 dwt aframax tankers Telleviken, Tofteviken and Troviken. Norwegian owner Viken Shipping sold the three vessels to undisclosed interests for a total price of $48m with time charter arrangements attached.

Following weeks of little or no action, the secondhand containership sale and purchase market has finally seen some movements this past week.

Allied Shipbroking and Clarkson reported the sale of the 2000-built 1,644teu feedermax Alidra. Greek owner Victoria Oceanway is said to have acquired the vessel from German owner Peter Dohle for a price of $3m.

Lion Shipbrokers linked the sale of the 2012 South Korean-built 1,049 teu boxship Sofrana Surville with Algerian owner CNAN Group. The vessel was sold by Greek owner Cosmoship for $13m. Primarily a bulker owner, CNAN increased its containership fleet to two ships through the deal.

Braemar ACM Shipbroking reported that the 2017 Chinese-built 9,400 teu MSC Desiree has been sold by Norwegian owner SinOceanic Shipping to German interests for $90m with a 15-year bareboat charter to MSC attached. VesselsValue shows the buyer is Blue Star Holding, a joint venture between ER Schiffahrt, Komrowski and Blue Star Reederei.

Additionally, Braemar ACM reported that the 2003-built 1,550 teu boxship Bao Cheng is on subs to German buyers at undisclosed levels.