Scorpio Bulkers Goes Big Into Dry Bulk with $455 Million Newbuild Acquisition

Scorpio Bulkers has snatched up 15 bulk carrier newbuilds from yards in Japan and China today in a $455 million acquisition, an order which will more than double its fleet of ships currently under construction.

The acquisition consists of eleven Ultramax dry bulk vessels of 60,000 DWT to 64,000 DWT and four Kamsarmax dry bulk vessels of 81,000 DWT to 84,000 DWT.  The shipyards and delivery schedules are listed below:

    Yard                                                DWT       Del'y  
1   Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding Co., LTD          60,200    Q2-16     
2   Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding Co., LTD          60,200    Q2-16     
3   Imabari Shipbuilding Co., Ltd                       61,000    Q2-15     
4   Imabari Shipbuilding Co., Ltd                       61,000    Q3-15     
5   Imabari Shipbuilding Co., Ltd                       61,000    Q4-15     
6   Imabari Shipbuilding Co., Ltd                       61,000    Q1-16     
7   Nantong COSCO KHI Ship Engineering Co. Ltd          61,000    Q2-16     
8   Nantong COSCO KHI Ship Engineering Co. Ltd          61,000    Q2-16     
9   Chengxi Shipyard Co. Ltd                            64,000    Q2-16     
10  Chengxi Shipyard Co. Ltd                            64,000    Q2-16     
11  Chengxi Shipyard Co. Ltd                            64,000    Q3-16     
12  Tsuneishi Group (Zhoushan) Shipbuilding Inc.        81,600    Q3-15     
13  Tsuneishi Group (Zhoushan) Shipbuilding Inc.        81,600    Q1-16     
14  Imabari Shipbuilding Co., Ltd                       84,000    Q1-15     
15  Imabari Shipbuilding Co., Ltd                       84,000    Q3-15

We spoke with Scorpio Bulkers CFO Hugh Baker this morning for additional comment and he notes that we are “clearly, very comfortable” with these particular sized ships, but other than that, he could not comment any further on the acquisition.

This order will be funded in part from the proceeds of a $300 million private placement of 33,400,000 new ordinary shares on the Oslo stock exchange last month.

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