The ongoing Covid-19 upheaval has created many winners in the shipping markets — but few bigger than handysize owners. Usually praised for producing steady, if relatively low earnings compared with bigger, high-risk high-reward bulkers, handysizes have been providing freight earnings unseen in years. “The market keeps surprising us all,” said an analyst at Athens-based bulker specialist Doric Shipbrokers. “The [benchmark] 7TC average keeps breaking consecutive records and new heights,” Doric said in the week to 16 July, when six out of the seven representative fixtures its brokers reported exceeded the $30,000-per-day mark.

On 23 July, the Baltic Exchange Handysize Index jumped to 1,736 points — its highest reading since September 2008. Players owning bigger ships feel content with the high rates their own vessels are earning. However, at the same time, they cannot help salivating over the money earned by the smaller ships, which are usually less expensive to acquire and operate. According to market observers, handysizes have been particularly apt to benefit from the uneven nature of the post-Covid global economic recovery, in which bottlenecks and opportunities suddenly appear and then vanish again in different parts of the world and in different kinds of trades.

“They can just go anywhere,” one shipping executive in Athens said. Even vintage handysizes previously believed to be obsolete have been in high demand. It is not surprising, therefore, to see handysizes featuring largely on the shopping lists of Greek owners. Vafias family company Brave Maritime has been among the most notable buyers relatively early in the cycle, acquiring five such ships so far this year, as TradeWinds has reported.

Handysizes have even attracted the interest of big winners in other shipping sectors, such as containership specialist Costamare, which has recently re-entered the dry bulk arena after a hiatus of about three decades. TradeWinds understands that at least a quarter of the 28 ships that the US-listed company has publicly acknowledged as having bought on the secondhand market as of 1 July — without identifying them — are handysizes. Among them are vessels built in South Korea, such as the 33,700-dwt Orient Adventure (renamed Adventure, built 2011), and China, such as the 33,500-dwt Orient Alliance (renamed Alliance, built 2010) and 37,200-dwt Interlink Acuity (renamed Acuity, built 2011).

Other Greek buyers are preparing to take delivery of handysizes they acquired earlier in the year. One example is Alma Shipmanagement & Trading. Two vessels bought by clients of the low-profile handysize specialist have entered the company’s fleet in an increasingly hot market. Earlier this month, Alma emerged as the new manager of the 28,300-dwt Loveland Island (renamed Lady Dimine, built 2010) and 28,200-dwt Crystal Island (renamed Lady Miraf, built 2011). Brokers reported both ships as sold in May by Japan’s Shikishima Kisen for about $18m in total. Combined, they are worth a cool $24m as of 23 July, according to VesselsValue.

The same Greeks who buy also keep an eye out for the odd asset play — especially when it comes to their oldest vessels. In early June, Alma reportedly sold the 28,500-dwt Despina Angel (built 2007) for $8.25m — a vessel it bought four years ago for about $7m. Managers at Alma did not respond to a request for comment. At about the same time that Alma bought its handysize pair, diversified Greek peer Evalend Shipping bought yet another ship sold by Shikishima Kisen. The Japanese company’s 28,200-dwt Cherry Island (built 2014), which brokers reported sold for about $11m to unidentified buyers at the time, emerged a few weeks later with Kriton Lendoudis-led Evalend under a new name, Bronco.