Glencore hires scrubber-fitted bulker from Seanergy

Capesize shipowner Seanergy Maritime Holdings Corp. has entered into a time charter agreement with commodity trading and mining company Glencore for an additional Capesize vessel.

As informed, the M/V Knightship will be the third of the company’s vessels time-chartered by ST Shipping and Transport Pte. Ltd., a fully owned subsidiary of Glencore.

Knightship is following Premiership and Squireship, which were delivered to ST Shipping in the fourth quarter of 2019.

The time charter will commence immediately upon completion of scrubber installation on Knightship, which is expected by the end of May 2020 and will extend for a period of 36 to 42 months.

According to Seanergy, the charterer will compensate the company for 100 per cent of the scrubber investment, including equipment and installation cost as well as for the associated off-hire days.

In addition to the daily hire, the company will be entitled to additional revenue (profit-sharing) above a certain spread between the price of high and low sulphur fuel oil throughout the term of the charter.

“We are pleased to further expand our relationship with Glencore through a third vessel under a commercial arrangement that Seanergy has pioneered in the sector,” Stamatis Tsantanis, the company’s chairman & CEO, stated.

“(F)ollowing the delivery of the Knightship to the subject charterer, 70 per cent of our fleet will be employed under index-linked time-charters. The relevant time charter equivalent of the Baltic Capesize Index has increased by 260 per cent from its lowest point seen two months ago.”

“Based on the improving market fundamentals, as further driven by the worldwide economic stimulus offered to ease the COVID-19 impact, we believe that our fleet is well-positioned to capture the full upside potential of the rising trend in the Capesize market,” he concluded.

Seanergy also revealed that another of its Capesize vessels is extending its current time charter contract.

The charterer of Gloriuship, an unnamed Asian dry bulk operator, has agreed to extend the initial four-to-seven-month time charter for an additional period of ten to fourteen months, commencing as of 23 April 2020.

The company has the option to convert the contract from floating to fixed for a minimum period of three months under certain conditions.

Seanergy provides marine dry bulk transportation services through a fleet of ten Capesize vessels, with a cargo-carrying capacity of approximately 1,748,581 dwt and an average fleet age of approximately eleven years.