Diana Shipping Inc. announced that on May 17, 2013, the company has signed, through separate wholly-owned subsidiaries, two shipbuilding contracts with China Shipbuilding Trading Company (CSTC), Limited and Jiangnan Shipyard (Group) Co., Ltd., for the construction of two Newcastlemax dry bulk carriers of approximately 208,500 dwt each for a contract price of US$48.7 million per vessel.
The Company expects to take delivery of the vessels during the second quarter of 2016.
Excluding the aforementioned vessels as well as 1 Capesize vessel expected to be delivered to the Company by the end of May 2013 and 2 new-building Ice Class Panamax vessels expected to be delivered to the Company during the fourth quarter of 2013, Diana Shipping Inc.’s fleet currently consists of 32 dry bulk carriers (2 Newcastlemax, 8 Capesize, 3 Post-Panamax, 2 Kamsarmax and 17 Panamax). As of today, the combined carrying capacity of our current fleet, excluding the five vessels not yet delivered, is approximately 3.5 million dwt with a weighted average age of 6.2 years.
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Diana Shipping, May 22, 2013