Sources say the Sungdong-built ship, which will be delivered this quarter, is set to earn $7,000 per day for its owner, US-listed Scorpio Bulkers. This is better than the spot market, which stood at $4,500 per day on Wednesday, unchanged from a week ago.

But such rate levels are far from covering costs for Scorpio, which reportedly bought the ship as a resale contract for $61m in January last year.