ATHENS: The S&P market has seen a number of older vessels changing hands this week, particularly in the dry cargo sector, where rates are still low and slow.
Whereas previous weeks have seen Greek shipowners swooping in on cheap secondhand bulkers, this week they’re mainly doing the selling. In the dry cargo sector, Star Bulk’s Star Christianna (74,600 dwt, built 1998) is reported sold to an unnamed buyer for $4.5m, almost a million dollars below VesselsValue.com’s valuation of $5.35m. The vessel was formerly part of the Excel Maritime fleet, which Star Bulk agreed to purchase late last year. The Athens-based carrier seems to be divesting all its older tonnage, having scrapped four panamax bulk carriers and one capesize (the Star Big) so far this year.
Greece’s Allied Shipbroking estimates that the average age of capesize vessels being scrapped this year is just six years old. Twenty-six such ships (4,581,047 dwt in total) have been sold for demolition so far this year, the broker said Tuesday. The 15-year-old handymax bulk carrier Smarty (45,500 dwt, built 2000) is reported sold by Greece’s Petrofin Ship Management this week. An unnamed buyer paid $6m for the vessel. The small bulk carrier Gournita (28,387 dwt, built 1996) was sold to Turkish buyers for $3.6 million.
Over in the tanker sector, the S&P market has been a bit quiet this week as owners prefer to pick up new tonnage and resale contracts. The 18-year-old suezmax tanker Pride (149,700 dwt, built 1993) is reported sold by Ukraine’s Vista Shipping for $12 million to an undisclosed buyer. Rotterdam-based ACE Tankers is reported to have sold its chemical tanker Chem Orion (10,300 dwt, built 1998) to an unnamed buyer for $6.5 million.
