Chinese bulker owner and operator Fujian Highton Development has struck a sale and leaseback deal for four recently-purchased vessels.
The fast-growing Shanghai-listed company is selling a pair kamsarmax and panamax bulkers each to compatriot lessor Xiamen Xiangyu Financial Leasing for $59.2m.
The vessels are the 2013-built 81,800 dwt AM Krakow and AM Buchanan and 2013- and 2014-built 76,100 dwt AM Annaba and AM Zenica, acquired from ArcelorMittal Shipping in March for $60m.
The company said in a stock exchange filing that it will, via its subsidiaries, take the ships back on floating index-linked contracts valued at not more than $71.92m.
Fujian Highton started in 2009 as supramax specialist but has since diversified its owned fleet through acquisitions in the larger bulker segments, including capesizes. The company said it counted a fleet of more than 60 bulkers, of which 46 were owned, along with three tankers as of the end of 2024.
Most recently, Fujian Highton added a 14-year-old, 57,000 dwt SFL Yukon, now renamed Xin Hai Tong 61, from John Fredriksen’s SFL Corporation for around $10.2m.
