Lomar Shipping is raking in a profit of more than $40m on the sale of a sub-panamax container ship purchased less than 18 months ago. The UK-based owner is selling the 2,872-teu Windswept (built 2010) for around $52m to China-backed logistics newcomer Transfar Shipping, according to market sources. The deal will net a chunky profit for Lomar, which bought the vessel in October 2020 for close to $10m. Since Lomar took delivery of the Windswept last February, it has operated on charter with Japanese carrier Ocean Network Express at around $18,000 per day. Lomar, which is part of George Logothetis-led Libra Group, acquired the vessel and sistership Windermere (built 2010) from NSC Holding of Germany.

The deal takes Transfar into the ship owning sector for the first time. The Singapore-incorporated company is one of the newest entrants to the transpacific trade, where it launched services last August. But it has been forced to shell out huge sums to charter a vessel it needed for services between China and the US east and west coasts. Transfar operates six chartered container ships of 1,200 teu up to 4,900 teu, according to Alphaliner. These have been taken for short periods at astronomical rates. Last July, the company agreed to pay $150,000 per day to take the 3,091-teu Minna (built 2005) from Germany’s Peter Dohle. The six-month fixture was then the highest time charter rate ever secured by the Hamburg tonnage provider. But shipowners said they have been willing to fix ships to Transfar, given that it is owned by Worldwide Logistics (Group). Worldwide is linked to Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, whose logistics arm Cainiao holds a 10% stake in the company.

The deal appears to confirm Lomar as one of the most successful asset players in the booming container ship market. It has raised about $1bn in gross proceeds from the sale of more than 25 boxships since December 2020. Meanwhile, Transfar has continued to fork out significant sums in recent weeks to take vessels for short periods, including paying $100,000 per day for the 3,388-teu Zhong Gu Shan Dong (built 2007) for three to four months. The 1,736-teu A Daisen (built 2010) was fixed at $60,000 per day for six months.