Containerships ‘climb’ again – The latest buying and selling deals

By George George

The return of fares in the container transport market, after a temporary correction in the previous period, drags – gradually – again upwards the prices of used steamers.

“We are seeing several deals in the last few days and prices are rising again,” a freight broker told Capital.gr. The interest, as he says, is focused on small feeders, with a capacity of 1,700 TEUs, but also on the larger baby panamaxes, with a capacity of 4,000 – 4,500 TEUs.

Indicatively, a steamer, with a capacity of 1,700 TEUs and built in 2008, was sold by a US-based fund, in Vietnamese interests, for 28 million dollars, a price that is considered more than satisfactory.

In another example, a baby panamax of the decade “changed hands” in recent days for $ 65 million, while until recently the price for a ship of this type was set at $ 60 million.

This return of prices to high levels comes after a sharp decline in values, during November. According to VesselsValue monthly data, reductions were recorded from 0.7% to 11.4%, compared to October, in all ship sizes and ages.

The Greek deals

Greek shipowners are particularly active in the market of used containerships this year, although they do not have the largest fleets in the industry internationally.

Specifically, the Greek shipping company is said to have bought about 30 containerships, spending 636.5 million dollars, based on data from VesselsValue. (data until mid-December).

According to the same source, in the eleven months of 2021, 348 containerships changed hands worldwide, with a total investment capital estimated at $ 10.23 billion. Last year, shipowners bought 187 steamers and 151 in 2019.

In one of the latest deals of the Greeks, Contships Management, interests of Nikolas Pateras, allegedly bought two containerships, with a capacity of 957 TEUs each. The company, which recently closed some multi-year charters, operates exclusively in containerships, controlling 40 ships of this type.

Several sales agreements have been concluded this year, among others, Tsakos Shipping & Trading of the Tsakos family, Danaos Corp. of Giannis Koustas, Lomar Shipping of George Logothetis, Global Ship Lease of George Giouroukos and other big names of the Greek navy.

In the global market, the deals reported by all freight brokers in the last week concern the sales of “COSCO Kawasaki” (capacity 4,334 TEUs and construction 2010), against $ 65 million and “Atlantic Solli” (capacity 2,007 TEUs and construction 2008), for $ 26 million.