Greek owners say a good time to buy secondhand bulkers

“We’re now at 30 year lows – it's a no brainer,” Stamatis Tsantanis, ceo of Synergy Maritime Holdings said the Capital Link Shipping Forum, a Posidonia Conference Programme Event.

He said new capital was not bad for shipping as long as people buy quality ships.

Tsantanis Believes the day bulk market is ready for a bounce back much as happened with tankers, which just a few years ago people believed were “finished”. “A lot of people have considered dry bulk as finished so it should come back again.

But he stressed the need to be rational in investments in quality tonnage that improves the current market.

John Platsidakis, md of Anangel Maritime Services, also believed it was a good time to invest: “I think it's a good market to make an investment providing you have the liquidity to sustain it.” While vessels maybe cheap the new owner still needs to have the money to sustain its operations through the bad market.

He said that the market needed to differentiate between money that comes with knowledge of shipping and takes a long-term view.

Pioneer Marine ceo Pamkaj Khanna noted there was very little new money in the market and seven out of 10 dry bulk ships on the secondhand market were going to Greek owners who had “very deep pockets”.

He commented that on the banking side there was no money, “which is good for shipping as no-one is running to the shipyards”.

Relating the start of his career in shipping, George Economou, chairman, president and ceo of DryShips, said he had been warned at the outset to not order newbuildings, and indeed his first ship was a seven-year old secondhand vessel. “Go buy a seven year old ship that way we won’t have an excess of capacity.”