Last month saw the resurrection of two newbuilding contracts, which we had concluded originally in June 2012 with Weihai-based SAMJIN Shipbuilding Ind. Co Ltd (SSI), at the time controlled by Korean shareholders. The initial order was for four 36,000 tdw Handysize newbuildings of the Korean designed FESDEC-36k eco type.

The yard was known for its good workmanship, but had to go through a financial restructuring due to the problems of its Korean parent. We cancelled all 4 ships in 2014 and 2015 after excessive delays and received back our downpayments. Roughly 50% of the building blocks were completed at that time and well-protected.

Samjin was acquired last year by the diversified Shanghai ZHOUJI Group (42,000 employees), who brought in an experienced Chinese workforce and also 40 management staff from Korea.

On 2^nd August 2017, we signed new contracts for two of our original hull numbers (#1058 and #1059) for delivery in the autumn of 2018 and January 2019. At the same time we concluded timecharter contracts with a major trading house for 4 – 5 years time charter on both vessels. We know, that the yard is again building excellent quality vessels, last year we observed the quality and enjoyed a good working relationship with the yard, when we bought 58,000 tdw “Frederike Oldendorff” as a resale from the yard.

The new vessels feature 4 x 35 tons “Mitsubishi” cranes, a Wärtsilä / WinGD main engine, MAN-B&W auxiliary engines and “Mewis” fuel saving ducts. The cargo holds have a generous cubic capacity of 47,500 cbm, a tanktop strength of 25 tons per sqm and a high flexibility for heavy bulk parcels and steel cargoes.

In the last 5 years since 2012, we have now invested more than US$ 2.25 billion in 89 vessels. Our buying program was divided equally among all 4 segments: 22 Capes (incl Newcastlemaxes and Baby Capes), 22 Panamaxes (incl Post-panamaxes and Kamsarmaxes), 22 Ultramaxes and Supramaxes and 22 Handies, plus one transshipment platform. We have focused on large capacity ships, which are best suited for our trades, made up of either eco newbuildings or newbuilding resales as well as typically around 5 year old, well-equipped second hand ships.