Italian shipowner Michele Bottiglieri has decided to keep two panamax bulkers that he has been circulating on the sale-and-purchase market for some time.

Bottiglieri told TradeWinds that the 93,300-dwt MBA Giovanni (built 2010) and MBA Rosaria (built 2011) will remain in the fleet of Michele Bottiglieri Armatore (MBA) due to an improving dry bulk market.

“I am keeping the ships,” he said when asked to confirm reports by brokers last week that the pair had been sold to Interocean of Argentina in an en-bloc deal worth $29m.