Private Chinese shipowners are showing an appetite for ageing secondhand bulker tonnage — and, in a recent deal, are said to have purchased a South Korean-owned panamax bulker that had been sold for scrap.

Commercial sources said cash buyer GMS purchased H Line's DSME-built, 70,400-dwt HL Tacoma (built 1994) for scrap and then sold it on for further trading to an unknown Chinese owner at an undisclosed price.