Diana Shipping Gains 9th Long Term Charter for 2013, Shares Rise

MV Semirio, image (c) Peter Karberg, via MarineTraffic.com

Athen-based dry bulk shipping firm, Diana Shipping Inc. (NYSE: DSX), has announced that over the past week, it has entered into a pair of time charter contracts with Cargill for the 174,261 DWT Capesize dry bulk carrier,  M/V Semirio, and the 74,186 DWT Capesize M/V Sideris GS at gross charter rates of is US$14,000 and US$13,500 per day respectively.

Both charters will commence in March and will last for about two years.

These contracts represent the 8th and 9th contracts announced by Diana Shipping since the first of January and shares of DSX have rebounded 25 percent during the same period.

In conversation with analyst today who spoke on the condition of anonymity, he notes that Diana Shipping is his top pick within the dry bulk sector.

“They are a publicly traded dry bulk shipping company with a market cap over 100 million and they are using their cash to buy one or two ships per quarter and keeping their fleet on roughly two year charters while the market recovers. There just aren’t other options out there in this sector like Diana,” he notes.

Diana Shipping Inc.’s fleet currently consists of 32 dry bulk carriers (17 Panamax, 2 Kamsarmax, 3 Post-Panamax, 8 Capesize and 2 Newcastlemax), as well as 2 newbuilding Ice Class Panamax vessels expected to be delivered to the Company during the fourth quarter of 2013. As of today, the combined carrying capacity of our current fleet, excluding the two vessels not yet delivered, is approximately 3.5 million dwt with a weighted average age of 6.0 years.

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