Several broking sources report that Kobe-headquartered bulker specialist Nikko Kisen has just offloaded its oldest cape, the nine-year-old 177,656dwt, Shagang First, to an undisclosed Singaporean buyer.

The transaction leaves the company with a trio of modern capes built between 2010 and 2011 as well as ships in other bulker sizes.

The Mitsui-built ship fetched US$18.5m including an eight plus two year bareboat charter at US$7,500 per day attached.

This is the second ship sold in the past 12 months by the Japanese owner.

In September 2014 the Japanese player sold a ship to Piraeus-based Apollonia Lines. The 76,000dwt Imabari-built panamax bulker Golden Kiji (built 2007) fetched US$19m.