John Fredriksen and former right-hand man Tor Olav Troim are among a select group of shipowners comfortably in the money ­after counter-cyclical investments in newcastlemax newbuildings over the past two years.

German tycoon Henning Oldendorff — another renowned asset player — James Chao and James Marshall are also looking at vast paper profits on the large bulkers.

All are benefiting from projects initiated in the past 18 months ­after they targeted a specific subsector of the dry cargo market as it began a ­recovery from historically low rates in 2016.