HNA Technology has locked in $51.55m from the sale of three bulk carriers, closing out a disposal programme launched in July and pricing the final vessel — the 2012-built capesize Bulk Joyance — at $31.1m to Hong Kong-registered Ripley Holding.

The Shanghai-listed group's wholly owned unit Asian Star Marine struck the deal, with delivery scheduled between October 1 and December 31 this year. The 175,600 dwt vessel, built at China's Jinhai Heavy Industry, remains registered in Hong Kong.

The transaction completes the contracting phase of a three-ship sell-off. HNA Technology has already transferred the 2006-built supramax AE Mars for $9.05m and the 2007-built panamax AE Jupiter for $11.4m.

The combined proceeds land slightly above the $49m valuation HNA disclosed when it put the ships up for sale in July. The trio carried an aggregate book cost of roughly $43.6m at the end of June, meaning the company is exiting at a modest premium to carrying value.

The Bulk Joyance sale shows a sharper gain. HNA bought that ship and sistership Bulk Harvest from Puhang Leasing in late 2020 for about $22.2m each, a purchase that marked the group's return to shipowning after an earlier exit from shipping. The agreed sale price sits almost $9m above what HNA paid for the vessel six years ago — a roughly 40% uplift on a capesize acquired near the last market trough.

The disposals feed into a broader fleet renewal plan. HNA said earlier this year it could sell between one and six older vessels across 2026 and 2027 while buying a similar number of ships aged 15 years or younger, with newcastlemaxes and supramaxes among the tonnage under consideration.

For dry bulk buyers, the deal adds modern capesize tonnage to the secondhand market at a price point that reflects firm asset values in the segment. For HNA, the sales free up capital and clear older units from the fleet ahead of a renewal cycle timed for the next two years.

The programme now moves to execution, with deliveries and any follow-on acquisitions — potentially spanning newcastlemax and supramax segments — set to define the shape of HNA's dry bulk fleet through 2027.