Eagle Bulk earnings climb

Eagle Bulk earnings climb New York-based Eagle Bulk Shipping Inc. said second quarter net profit improved to $11.9 million from $9.4 million in the year earlier quarter, while gross time charter revenue rose to $31 million from $26.2 million.
   The higher earnings “reflect solid growth in revenue quarter over quarter and year over year,' said Sophocles Zoullas, chairman and chief executive officer. 'This growth is the result of demand for our young homogenous fleet, as well as continued momentum in the dry bulk market.”
   During the quarter, the company took delivery of three supramax vessels with an average age of four years that were purchased in the first quarter, and expanded a newbuilding program to five 56,000-deadweight-ton supramax vessels.
   But the company’s big expansion plans came after the quarter, on July 25, when Eagle said it had agreed to acquire a fleet of 26 newbuild supramax vessels for $1.1 billion. Once the purchase is completed, its fleet would more than double to 49 vessels from 23 vessels, and tonnage will expand 124 percent to about 2.7 million dwt.
   On Aug. 1 it also extended a relationship with the Sinopacific Shipbuilding Group, the parent of the Yangzhou Dayang Shipbuilding Co. (China), by securing an agreement that gives the company options to build nine additional supramax vessels to be delivered from 2010 to 2012.