Eagle Bulk Shipping Inc. (NASDAQ: EGLE) (Eagle Bulk), one of the world’s largest owner-operators within the Supramax / Ultramax drybulk segment, Tuesday (Dec29) announced that it has purchased two modern high-specification SDARI-64 scrubber-fitted Ultramax bulkcarriers. This follows the Company’s recently-announced acquisition of a similar specification vessel.
The first vessel, which was built in 2015 and will be renamed the M/V Helsinki Eagle, has been acquired for USD 16.5 million. The second vessel, which was built in 2016 and will be renamed the M/V Stockholm Eagle, has been acquired for USD 17.65 million.
Both ships were constructed at Chengxi Shipyard Co. Ltd. Closings are expected during the first quarter of 2021, with the M/V Stockholm Eagle delivering to Eagle in the Atlantic basin.
Gary Vogel, Eagle Bulk’s CEO, commented, “We have continued to actively renew our fleet this past year, acquiring three modern/efficient scrubber-fitted Ultramaxes and divesting five of our vintage Supramaxes, with an average age of ~18 years. Over the past four years, we have turned over almost half of our fleet, acquiring 23 modern Ultramaxes and selling 19 older Supramaxes. These transactions have vastly improved our fleet makeup—increasing the average size of our ships, improving our fleet age profile, and reducing our emissions footprint on a per deadweight-ton basis. We believe that our fleet renewal strategy along with our active management approach to trading will help us maximize our cash generation potential and continue to deliver on our market outperformance.”
Source: Eagle Bulk Shipping