Greek shipowners are the driving force of the secondary market of bulk carriers this year, as they are involved in the majority of acquisition deals, mainly of large ships.
In the first ten months of 2023, the “Greeks” strengthened their fleets with 154 bulk carriers, according to data shared with “Naftemporiki” by Irini Diamantara, research analyst in Xclusiv Shipbrokers.
Although purchase and sale agreements are down this year compared to last year at the global level, domestic movements are showing – albeit a small – increase on an annual basis.
Xclusiv’s data shows that between January and October 2023, a total of 563 bulk carriers “changed hands” on the second hand market, compared to 619 vessels in the same period last year, i.e. a drop of approximately 9% was recorded.
On the contrary, during the same period, the Greek markets have strengthened by 2.67% compared to last year (154 markets this year versus 150 in 2022).
In other words, 27.35% of the bulk carriers that changed owners this year ended up with a Greek shipowner.
It is noted that in the same period last year, Chinese shipowners were the leading force, having bought a total of 182 ships. However, in the ten-month period they proceeded with considerably fewer deals (86 purchases, a drop of 52.75% on an annual basis).
Also, the interest of Turkish shipowners, who have been quite active in buying and selling over the last years, is also limited. In particular, they made 36 purchases of second hand bulkers, compared to 52 last year (-30.77%).
Capesize ships are on the rise
Examining the Greek purchases in terms of type of ship, at the top of preferences for the ten months of 2023 are, according to Diamantara, the handysize bulk carriers and the large capesize trucks, with 36 and 32 acquisition deals respectively.
The “Greeks” turned to the capes, which were increased by 18, up almost 78%.
Domestic shipping companies were, in fact, behind almost half of the capes involved in global sales, with 81 such vessels changing hands this year, compared to 35 in the first half of 2022 (+131.4%).
High on the list of Greek markets this year were ultramaxes with 22 deals and kamsarmaxes with one less.
