EuroDry is paying about $37m for a third 82,000 dwt kamsarmax at Hengli Shipbuilding, taking its newbuilding programme to roughly $183m across five ships and 373,000 dwt. The latest contract lifts the Aristides Pittas-led owner's three-vessel Hengli commitment to around $111m.

The ship, to be named Konstantina TZ, is scheduled for delivery in the third quarter of 2029. The contract remains conditional on EuroDry receiving an acceptable bank refund guarantee — standard practice, but worth noting until the paperwork clears.

Two sister vessels already sit on Hengli's orderbook. EuroDry contracted those in April and May this year for a combined $74m, again $37m apiece, with deliveries slated for the first and second quarters of 2028. The newest ship will follow Nikos P and Christina Bel into the water.

Why order new rather than buy used?

The arithmetic is the story here. EuroDry estimates that five-year-old kamsarmaxes now change hands at or above newbuilding prices. At similar capital cost, a fresh, fuel-efficient ship simply wins.

Chairman and chief executive Aristides Pittas pointed to that sharp rise in secondhand values as the driver behind returning to Hengli. The newbuildings will be built to an eco design compliant with EEDI Phase 3 requirements — a genuine consideration for charterers watching their own emissions math.

What does this change for EuroDry's fleet?

Plenty. Beyond the three Hengli kamsarmaxes, the company has two 63,500 dwt ultramaxes under construction at Nantong Xiangyu Shipbuilding. The Aristeidis and Troboni arrive in the second and third quarters of 2027 and cost $71.8m in total.

Taken together, that's about $182.8m committed to fleet renewal. EuroDry currently operates 11 bulkers totalling 766,420 dwt: two kamsarmaxes, six supra/ultramaxes and three older panamaxes.

Those panamaxes — Santa Cruz, Starlight and Blessed Luck — date from 2004 and 2005. The rest of the operating fleet was built between 2014 and 2018. Once all five newbuildings deliver, EuroDry would run 16 bulkers with around 1.14m dwt of capacity, roughly a 49% increase in deadweight tonnage versus today.

Hengli's Greek following keeps growing

EuroDry is hardly alone at the revived Dalian yard. Star Bulk, Oceanbulk, Laskaridis Maritime and other Greek dry bulk owners have all turned to Hengli for kamsarmax tonnage in recent years, and recent contracts have generally clustered around the $36m-$38m mark.

That price consistency tells its own tale. When secondhand tonnage costs as much as steel fresh from the slipway, ordering desks stay busy — and Greek owners, characteristically, are first in the queue.

For charterers, more eco-design kamsarmaxes entering the fleet from 2027 through 2029 means incrementally better fuel economics on offer. For EuroDry shareholders, it means nearly $183m of committed capex against a fleet whose oldest tonnage is now two decades old.

With deliveries stretched across seven quarters, the bet is that secondhand values stay firm enough — long enough — to make the newbuild math look prescient rather than merely reasonable.