Loss making Scorpio Bulkers in talks to sell more vessels

Scorpio Bulkers, which lost $52.1m in the first quarter, has sold 10 newbuildings in the last week, including three bulkers that had been converted to contracts to LR1 tankers.

In its first quarter earnings call Scorpio Bulkers president said they did not think there would be any further conversions.

“We do not think that there will be any meaningfully more postponements in delivery, we have done a bulk of that. What we’re committed to do is to continue to sell assets and we’re presently negotiating for the sale of further assets and the extent to those will be revealed over the coming days,” he said in a transcript published by Seeking Alpha.

Scorpio Bulkers is working on the basis of a U-shaped recovery and is not expecting a market rebound for at least another year.

Emanuele Lauro, chairman and ceo of Scorpio Bulkers said: “Our operating base case is that the dry cargo market will not make a sustained recovery until the second half of 2016. We told you early in March that by this time we would have been able to provide you with more clarity on the actions taken to improve our balance sheet and we believe that the last week’s announcement are doing so.”