New moves of the Laskaridis and Delaporta families on cargo ships

By George George

“The market is at a healthy level. The crazy course we see in containerships may not be recorded, but it presents several positive elements.” With this phrase, an executive of a leading Greek shipping group briefly describes in Capital.gr the freight market for the transport of bulk dry cargo.

Market leader is China. The recent slowdown in demand from the Asian country has contributed greatly to the decline in fares. However, the industry has shown resilience and the expected return of the Chinese after the New Year and the Winter Olympics next February, is estimated to work as a boost for the freight market.

At the same time, the image on the front of the offer is particularly encouraging. “Dry cargo is one of the least invested shipping industries,” said Breakwave Advisors analysts. The result is that the order book is now at historically low levels.

“The low order book and the fact that the most well-known shipyards offer available seats for construction from 2024 onwards (due to an overabundance of containerships orders), means that ship deliveries may decline, leading to a slowdown in the growth of the bulk carriers fleet below “2% over the next two years. This will create an even more favorable environment for the market and for a longer period of time,” notes the shipping brokerage Intermodal.

Where do fares go?

The key index of the freight market, Baltic Dry Index, closed on Friday with a weekly increase of 3.2%.

The average daily fare on the market’s large capesize ships reached $ 40,035. In the smaller panamaxes, the daily fare was $ 27,610 and in the supramaxes $ 27,954. According to Seasure Shipbroking, all ship sizes moved higher than last week.

It is noted that in mid-October, fares “climbed” to the highest point in recent years. For example, capes made $ 86,953 a day and panamaxes $ 37,401 a day.

These numbers indicate that the market has been moving at a “frenetic” pace this year, and while during 2020, fares in all sizes have fallen below $ 5,000 per day.

The Greek movements

Of course, the big news of the last few weeks is the new mass purchases of used bulk carriers from Costamare by Kostis Konstantakopoulos. (https://www.capital.gr/epixeiriseis/3600909/mega-paraggelia-okto-containerships-apo-tin-costamare-tou-k-konstantakopoulou)

However, since the Greek shipowners are one of the most active internationally in the market, interesting deals are always made, both in terms of charters and in terms of sales.

In one of them, the Lavinia Bulk of the Laskaridis family is said to have closed a charter for the kamsarmax “Artemis” (capacity 82,000 dwt and built in 2013). Seasure Shipbroking notes that the charter will last for one year, with the price estimated at $ 23,500 per day.

According to its website, the company manages 53 dry bulk carriers.

At the same time, two different brokerage sources connect Costas Delaportas’s Meadway Shipping & Trading with the sale of the handysize “Targa” (capacity 28,419 dwt and built in 2009), for $ 14.1 million. That’s a good price, as VesselsValue valued the ship at $ 13.3 million on the day of the sale.

The shipping company is active in the used car market, with various shipping brokers noting that it has finally moved to acquire two steamers. Based on the information provided on its website, it manages nine bulk carriers.

Last April, it became known that the Delaporta brothers would follow different “shipping lanes”, splitting the Meadway Shipping & Trading fleet in two. Thus, Costas remained at the helm of Meadway Shipping & Trading and George took over the Meadway Bulkers.