Brokers and owners were out far too late enjoying themselves in the Greek capital this past week, something that has clearly been reflected on the S&P markets with a noticeable and predictable drop in concluded sales. The Posidonia effect has worked its magic on the markets once again, albeit charter rates for many sectors remained surprisingly strong during these past few party days. What is clear however is that buyers’ interest remains firm, as reflected by quietly bullish tone among owners in Athens.
“Despite the quiet week, there are several negotiations underway … that we hope to be able to report on next week, particularly if Posidonia gets owners in the buying mood,” Clarkson said in its weekly report.
“On the dry bulk side, activity seems to have scaled back slightly this past week, though there was a considerable volume of chatter as to ongoing deals that could well surface over the coming days. Interest is still there and it looks as though prices have been on the move again these past couple of weeks and we may well see this trend hold off for a little while longer. Given that we are in the midst of the Posidonia Exhibition fever, we may well see a fair amount of high profile deals take shape over the coming days,” Allied Shipbroking said in its latest weekly report.
Chinese buyers continue to dominate the older panamax sector this week. Multiple shipbroking sources including Clarkson, Banchero Costa, Optima and Lorentzen & Stemoco listed the sale of the 2001-built panamax Omiros. The 73,000 dwt Japanese-built vessels has been sold by Greek owner Navina Maritime to Chinese buyers for $8.8m.
Greek owner Tsakos has sold its 1998-built 72,000 dwt panamax Nearchos to Chinese interests. The Japanese-built vessel has fetched a price of $5.7m.
Additionally, it was reported by Intermodal, Allied Shipbroking, and Advanced Shipping & Trading that the 2002-built panamax Atlantic Hawk was sold by Greek owner Livanos Group to Chinese interests. The price for the Japanese-built 74,000 dwt bulk carrier was reported as $9.5m.
In the meantime, Greek owners have been somewhat active on the secondhand handysize bulker market.
More than five shipbroking houses reported an en bloc sale of two 2003-built 29,721dwt sister vessels Silvretta and Silvaplana. The two Japanese-built vessels were sold by Swiss owner Suisse Atlantique to Greek buyers for around $14.3m in total.
“On the tanker side, activity continued to hold a fairly firm levels, though once again characterized by a few enbloc deals. Against this increased activity, prices still seem to be slightly waning, especially for older aged units, though the improved interests levels being seen amongst buyers and an ever increasing level of interest being noted amongst investors for this sector could well help price levels stabilize fairly soon and even push for a slight upward correction,” Allied Shipbroking said.
The sell-off of Toisa’s entire fleet continues this week, according to Banchero Costa, with three crude tankers from the bankrupt firm, United Leadership (2005-built, 159,062 dwt), United Kalavryta (2005-built, 159,156 dwt), and United Fortitude (2010-built, 112,719 dwt) all sold to Greek buyers. Advanced Shipping & Trading has identified the buyer of United Leadership as Eurotankers. The vessel fetched a price of $18.2m while United Kalavryta and United Fortitude were sold to undisclosed Greek buyers for $18m and $22m respectively. In the previous week, we noted three tankers from Toisa’s fleet sold to Greek buyers.
Additionally, Clarkson listed the sale of the 2005-built MR tanker Arctic Bridge. The 50,903 dwt Korean-built tanker was sold by Cypriot owner Interorient Shipmanagement to undisclosed European buyers for $12m.
There has been no deal to report in the secondhand containership sale and purchase market in the past week.
