Weekly Broker: Greeks turn attention to tanker bargains

Despite the first champagne corks popping in Athens as Posidonia parties get underway the secondhand bulker sale and purchase market has seen fairly good volumes in the past week even though charter rates slackened in almost all bulker segments. Meanwhile, the tanker sector has also seen a sizeable tranche of ships changing hands, with Greek owners involved in most of the deals.

“On the dry bulk side, activity once again remained plentiful, seeing a fair amount of units changing hands. Despite the downward trajectory noted in the freight market these past couple of weeks, buying interest has remained firm, with the still prevalent buying competition having been reflected in part on the price levels reported. All-in- all, given the general robust sentiment, there may well be room for further price hikes over the coming months, while if the market man- ages to show a fair freight market rally during the start of the summer period this should go a long way towards sparking ever more buying interest,” Allied Shipbroking said in its latest weekly report.

The charter rates of bulk carriers in all segments didn’t see much improvement for this past week, with capesize rates further softening as the list of available tonnage for June loading in Brazil continued to grow, and panamax spot rates generally softened in both basins, while supramax rates fell week-on-week in the Atlantic reflecting limited availability of fresh cargo and the rates for supramax in the Pacific generally held steady.

Allied Shipbroking reported that Hong Kong owner Pacific Basin has bought the 2010-built supramax Geraldine Manx from Isle of Man owner LT Ugland Shipping. The 58,058 dwt vessel fetched a firm price of $15.5m.

Several shipbroking sources reported the sale of two 2013-built handymax bulkers from Belgian owner Cobelfret – the Lowlands Saguenay and the Lowlands Boreas, while Allied Shipbroking has identified Cyprus-based owner Pola Maritime as the buyer.

Both Advanced Shipping & Trading and Lorentzen & Stemoco reported that Japanese owner Shoei Kisen has sold its 2010-built handymax Glorious Sentosa and they have identified Hong Kong owner Taylor Maritime as the buyer. The 28,300 dwt vessel has fetched a price of $9.5m.

“On the tanker side, it looks as though activity was once more on the high end, with a fair portion of Greek buying interest having seemingly shifted towards the tanker sector. Once again though, the level of activity was hugely backed by big sizeable enbloc deals, indicating that there is plenty of appetite for bargain fleets for sale,” Allied Shipbroking said.

More than five shipbroking houses reported a deal in which Greek owner Spring Marine Management bought the 2010-built tanker Nord Intelligence from Singapore’s Blue Wake Shipping for a price of $16.5m.

Intermodal and Seasure Shipbroking and Advance Shipping & Trading all listed the bank sale of two 2004-built tankers – the CPO Larisa Athena and the CPO Larisa Artemis from German owner Claus-Peter Offen. Indonesian owner Waruna is reported to have acquired the two vessels for $15.6m in total.

In the product segment, the US Bankruptcy Court continues to sell the vessels in the fleet of Gregory Callimanopulos’s Toisa. Multiple shipbroking sources all reported the sale of Toisa’s 2007-built tanker United Banner. Greek owner Sea World Management is said to have acquired the vessel for a price of $10.25m. Another two 2007-built tankers from Toisa’s fleet, the United Carrier and United Ambassador, have been sold to undisclosed Greek owners for $10.25m and $10.3m respectively.

In the secondhand containership sale and purchase market, things started to improve a little this week.

Allied Shipbroking, Intermodal and Clarkson all reported a deal in which Singapore-based owner Asiatic Lloyd has bought the 2010-built panamax boxship Corinthiakos from Greek owner Dimitris Papadimitriou’s Dioryx Maritime for a price of $15m.

Expect a much more brief S&P roundup next week as Posidonia will be in full throttle.