New-York listed Costamare founded by the Greek Captain Vasileios Konstantakopoulos renews its dry bulk fleet, while disposing some of its older boxships.
The Greek owner reports that the acquisitions of three dry bulkers have been completed.
The company has previously informed about its intention to buy the 2011-built, 175,975 dwt capacity dry bulk vessel Enna, the dry bulk vessel Dorado of 179,842 dwt also built in 2011, and the 2013-built, dry bulk vessel Arya with a 61,424-dwt capacity.
The dry bulker trio acquisition has been successfully completed by the company in August and September 2023, and now the owner expects to dispose some of its older boxships.
The shipowner concluded the sale of the 1998-built of 2,472 teu capacity containership, Monemvasia, in August 2023. Prior to the conclusion of such sale, the company owned 49% equity interest in the company owning this containership with the remaining equity interest being owned by York Capital. It also sold the 2000-built of 4,890 teu capacity containership, Oakland, in October 2023.
Now the top management reports that the agreement for the sale of the 2006-built, 55,709 dwt capacity dry bulk Peace is expected to be concluded in the fourth quarter of 2023, whilst the deal for the sale of the 2006-built, of 55,705 dwt capacity dry bulk Pride will be concluded in the fourth quarter of 2023.
Costamare, a major owners and provider of containerships and dry bulk vessels for charter, with a fleet of containerships and dry bulk vessels, reports an almost fully employed containership fleet.
In its owned fleet charter update, the company said that 100%, 87% and 73% of its containership fleet is fixed for 2023, 2024 and 2025.
The contracted revenues for the containership fleet are about $2.7 billion with a teu-weighted duration of 3.7 years.
Furthermore, the owner entered into more than 50 chartering agreements for the owned dry bulk fleet since the second quarter 2023 earnings release.
The Greek owner also has a dry bulk operating platform which charters in/out dry bulk vessels, enters into contracts of affreightment, forward freight agreements and may also utilize hedging solutions.
Costamare Bulkers (CBI) has currently fixed a fleet of 59 dry bulk vessels on period charters, consisting of 37 newcastlemax/capesize vessels, and 22 kamsarmax/panamax vessels.
All the chartered-in vessels have been delivered to CBI, whilst the majority of the fixed fleet is on index linked charter-in agreements.
Gregory Zikos, chief financial Officer of costamare, said: “In the containership sector, larger ships continue to enjoy a tight market, while smaller vessels experience deteriorating conditions. Overall, the market outlook remains uncertain due to the large orderbook and insufficient vessel demolition.
“On the dry bulk side, as part of our strategy to renew the fleet and increase its average size, we acquired one ultramax and two capesize vessels and at the same time we disposed of two older supramax vessels.
“Our owned dry bulk vessels continue to trade on a spot basis while the trading platform has grown to a fleet of 59 ships. Having invested $200 million in the dry bulk operating platform, we are committed long term to the sector whose fundamentals we view positively.”
