James Marshall-led Berge Bulk is said to
have paid $214m for the vessels in a deal directly with Hyundai Heavy
Industries.
As TradeWinds has reported HHI has been
looking to sell the quartet which Nobu ordered in 2008 at its Ulsan yard and
Hyundai Samho subsidiary before later defaulting.
The $53.5m per vessel price for the 263,000-dwt
ships – initially dubbed M Duckling, N Duckling, O Duckling and P Duckling – is
below the $60m figure the yard had been looking for.
It is, however, only pocket change from the
$53.4m figure vesselsvalue.com had against each of the odd-sized bulkers.
For Berge Bulk the grab would continue a
rapid phase of fleet expansion.
As we reported in November the owner, part
of the BW Group controlled by the Sohmen-Pao family, had been linked with a
couple of capesize purchases.
The deals were flagged as part of a growth
which has seen the company’s fleet double in a five-year period.
Clarksons today counts 25 ships in the
Berge Bulk trading fleet with a single newbuilding to come from Bohai in China.
HHI is not the only shipyard to sell off
TMT newbuildings. Compatriots Hyundai Mipo Dockyard (HMD) and Daewoo
Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) have done the same.
In August, HMD put a 37,000-dwt handysize
bulker, identified as D Handy, up for sale, saying the owner had failed to keep
up payments. The vessel was bought by Cosmoship of Greece for $21m.
In May, Okpo-based DSME marketed two
320,000-dwt VLCCs — Hull Nos 5328 and 5331, the G Elephant and H Elephant —
when the owner failed to take delivery and had paid only a 10% deposit. The G
Elephant is believed to have also been completed about a year ago.
