 Quintana
Maritime takes delivery of last ship from Tsuneishi shipyard
IRON MANOLIS delivered
Quintana Maritime Limited (NASDAQ: QMAR) announced
today that it took delivery of Iron Manolis, its seventeenth and last
vessel purchased from affiliates of Metrobulk, from Tsuneishi, a Japanese
shipyard, yesterday. Iron Manolis is a Kamsarmax vessel with a carrying
capacity of 82,300 deadweight tons (dwt).
As previously announced, sixteen of the seventeen vessels we agreed to
acquire from Metrobulk, including Iron Manolis, are employed under a
master time charter with Bunge S.A. (NYSE:BG) at an average daily rate of
$22,284 for 2007 and $24,500 for 2008. An additional Panamax, Grain
Harvester is already on time charter with Bunge through September 2009 at
$20,000 per day. Quintana Maritime has fixed the rates for all seventeen
vessels it has acquired or agreed to acquire from Metrobulk for 2008 well
ahead of the scheduled negotiations.
With the delivery of the Iron Manolis, the Company has secured
approximately 97% of its net operating days under time charter contracts
for 2007 and 81% for 2008, which the Company expects to generate aggregate
net revenues of approximately $425 million over 2007 and 2008.
Stamatis Molaris, President and Chief Executive Officer of Quintana
Maritime, commented, “We are pleased to have taken delivery within
schedule of Iron Manolis, the last of the seventeen vessels we agreed to
acquire from Metrobulk. In this context, all seventeen ships acquired from
Metrobulk have been successfully integrated within our fleet employment
strategy of having the highest time charter coverage amongst our peer
group. As we conclude one of the largest dry bulk deals done so far in the
market, we will continue to seek opportunities of further fleet expansion
as our focus is to increase shareholder value.
Fleet Table as of April 4, 2007
* Under Construction
(A), (B), (C), and (D) indicate sister ships. As of April 4, 2007 Quintana
had four sets of sister ships, including the vessels recently acquired
from Metrobulk. All seventeen ships that are part of the Metrobulk
acquisition are sister ships. Sister ships indicate vessels of the same
class made in the same shipyard. The sister-ship concept further enhances
our operational flexibility and efficiency.
(E) On a dwt weighted average
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