Pioneer Marine puts entire bulker fleet up for sale

Greece-based dry bulk shipowner Pioneer Marine has announced that it will sell the remaining Handysize bulk carriers after which the entire company will be dissolved.

At a meeting held on 23 June 2021, stakeholders voted that all vessels be put for sale at an agreed minimum price to be decided by the board of directors.

The move comes after Pioneer Marine decided to sell two vessels during the first quarter of 2021.

The company completed the sales and delivered the M/V Reunion Bay and M/V Liberty Bay in March 2021 to their new owners on a charter free basis and recorded a loss on sale of $200,00.

In April, it also completed the disposals of M/V Eden Bay, M/V Alsea Bay and M/V Emerald Bay and delivered the vessels to their new owners on a charter free basis.

As disclosed, positive results were reported during the first quarter, with adjusted net income of $1.1 million, TCE revenues of $10.7 million and adjusted EBITDA of $3.4 million.

As of March 31, 2021, Pioneer Marine had a total liquidity of $30.5 million inclusive of $7.5 million in restricted cash.

The company, which currently owns eight Handysize drybulk carriers, was founded in 2014.

The decision to sell up comes at a time of rapid recovery of the dry bulk shipping market.

Global dry bulk demand has seen a record-breaking start of the year, according to BIMCO’s latest report on dry bulk shipping.

Moreover, the first four months of 2021 have been record-breaking in terms of volume, with demand reaching 1.69 billion tonnes, the highest ever start to a year.

Compared with the same period in 2020, the volumes rose up to 6.1 per cent and went only slightly down from the 1.72 billion tonnes in the fourth quarter of 2020.

Major factors driving the growth of dry bulk shipping market size are accelerating economic growth, higher urbanization, rising steel production, and growing coal industry, as revealed by the Dry Bulk Shipping Market Research Report 2021 published on Valuates Report.