Diana Shipping’s new vessel
Diana Shipping, owned by Symeon Palios, has added a 13th vessel to its fleet, the panamax dry-bulker Coronis, which has a capacity of 74,381 deadweight tons (dwt). The ship was built and delivered to the company by the Chinese shipyards of Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding. Today, the Nasdaq-listed company owns one capesize (the 169,883-dwt Pantelis SP) and 12 panamax ships. The fleet’s total capacity is 11.1 million dwt with an average age of just 3.6 years. Coronis has already been time-chartered by Belgian company Bocimar International for 11 to 13 months, paying a daily rate of $21,000. The company also recently announced a series of time-chartering deals for its ships. The latest one, not including Coronis, is for the newly built panamax bulker Clio, chartered by BHP Billiton Marketing AG. The latter is delivering the vessel today and will use it for 11 to 13 months. Another two panamax ships of Diana Shipping were recently booked by Cargill International. Analysts, however, recently showed they are losing their trust in dry-bulk carrying ships, downgrading listed companies’ shares, including that of Diana Shipping. Its share was trading on Tuesday at $11.5 having entered the market at $16 per share, with an historic high of $17.55. Fortis Bank has revised its forecast for the freight rates of dry-bulkers in 2006, with a 34 percent decline for panamax ships and a 35 percent drop for capesize vessels.
