Euroseas doubles up: $62,500 a day for 25-year-old feeder, $26m sale

Euroseas has fixed its 25-year-old feeder EM Corfu at $62,500 per day — more than double the $28,000 it earned a year ago — while selling the vessel's sistership for roughly $26m. Not bad for two ships built in 2001.

The Nasdaq-listed Greek owner said the 2,556 teu EM Corfu will go on charter for a minimum of 12 months and up to 14, at the charterer's option. The contract starts in mid-December, after a scheduled drydocking.

The sistership deal is just as telling. Euroseas agreed to sell the 2,556 teu Evridiki G to an unrelated third party for approximately $26m, with handover at the end of October once its current charter expires. The company expects to book an accounting gain of about $22.5m on the disposal.

What do the numbers say about the feeder market?

Plenty. Both vessels were fixed in November 2024 at rates that now look like a different era: EM Corfu at $28,000 per day and Evridiki G at $29,500. The new deal lifts EM Corfu's earnings by $34,500 per day — a 123% increase in twelve months.

Put another way, the minimum charter period should generate roughly $17.8m in EBITDA for Euroseas. That's from one ageing feeder, not a newbuild programme.

The sale also sidesteps a second costly drydocking for the Evridiki G. Selling a 24-year-old ship near the top of the market, and letting the buyer handle the steel and paint, is textbook asset play.

What does this change for Euroseas?

The fleet shrinks, briefly. After the disposal, Euroseas will operate 20 containerships with a combined capacity of approximately 58,600 teu.

The orderbook does the heavy lifting from here. The Aristides Pittas-led company has 12 vessels under construction in China, spanning 1,800 teu feeders to 4,484 teu intermediate containerships, with deliveries scheduled between 2027 and 2029.

So the strategy reads clearly: harvest cash from elderly tonnage while charter rates hold, then recycle it into younger, more efficient ships arriving in three to five years.

Why shippers should care

For cargo owners and forwarders moving intra-regional volumes, the message is that feeder capacity remains scarce enough to more than double a quarter-century-old vessel's earning power. Charterers are evidently willing to pay premium rates for small tonnage, which keeps pressure on regional slot costs.

For carriers, the deal confirms that disposing of older feeders at strong prices is an attractive exit — which, in turn, gradually tightens the pool of available small ships.

The open question is durability. Euroseas is locking in 12 to 14 months of elevated income, but its own decision to sell rather than redrydock one sister suggests management sees a ceiling somewhere. Expect further feeder asset sales across the sector while these numbers hold.