Weekly Broker: Sun shines on ship deals ahead of the summer break
Following two weeks of comparatively low activity levels, the secondhand dry bulk sale and purchase market bounced back in recent days, led by some noticeable en bloc deals. Owners appear to be getting their fleet plans in place before the summer holidays kick in.
“On dry bulk, Allied Shipbroking noted in its latest weekly report: “[T]he overall balance was well shared between different age groups and size segments, though it is worth pointing out that the focus was more on modern units on the larger sizes, while the opposite was true for the smaller sizes. We have been seeing some price hikes take shape, though for the moment most have been noted in the larger capes, something that is logical given the better earnings performance they have witnessed.”
Several shipbroking houses including Allied Shipbroking, Intermodal, Lorentzen & Stemoco and Optima all reported an en bloc deal in which Qatar-based commodity trader MFH acquired two 1998-built panamax bulkers, the 77,828 dwt Energy Prosperity and the 77,697 dwt Energy Midas from Indonesian owner Karya Sumber Energy. The price for the two Japanese-built vessels is $7.8m each.
Both Lorentzen & Stemoco and Intermodal identified the buyer behind the en bloc purchase of two 2012-built 63,500 dwt ultramax bulkers Saga Amazone and Sage Colorado as Greek owner Blue Planet Shipping. The two Chinese-built bulkers were sold by JP Morgan for $19.5m each.
Additionally, Allied Shipbroking, Banchero Costa and Lorentzen & Stemoco all listed the sale of the 2012-built supramax Pollux Star. Greek owner Seamar is said to have acquired the 57,000 dwt Japanese built vessel from Japanese owner Kamabra Kisen for a price of $17.5m.
“On the tanker side, activity scaled back this past week despite the recent trend. When taking a closer look at the sales that emerged, the focus seems to have been on older tonnage for the time being, while in respect to most of the sales seen this week, reported prices seemed to have been at relatively competitive levels when compared to last done levels,” Allied Shipbroking said in the report.
Multiple shipbroking houses reported the sale of the 2003-built aframax tanker Krasnodar. The 115,000 dwt Korean-built tanker was sold by Russian owner Novoship to Greek owner Horizon Tankers for a price of $9.5m.
Intermodal, Allied Shipbroking and Banchero Costa have all identified Norwegian owner Bergshav as the buyer of the 2008-built aframax tanker Sentosa River. Japanese owner K Line sold the 115,000 dwt Japanese-built vessel for $18.9m.
In the MR sector, according to reports by several shipbroking houses, the 2008-built 37,000 dwt Conti Guinea has been sold by German owner Conti Redeerei to Norwegian company Atlantica for $12.5m.
In the container sector the en bloc purchase of four 3,800 teu boxships by Ocean Yield to be chartered back by CMB led the way, while Alphaliner reported MSC has bought the 6,586 teu sister ships K Pegasus and K Phoenix from Zodiac Maritime for an undisclosed price. The ships have been renamed MSC Pegasus and MSC Phoenix. The ships were built in Japan 15 years ago, originally for NYK.
Splash is anticipating a busy final few days of June ahead of the summer break in the northern hemisphere.
