Company: CMDB
Filing Date: 2025-03-31
Form Type: 20FR12B
Source: 0001140361-25-011425
Chunk: 152

Company: Costamare Bulkers Holdings Ltd
Filing Date: 2025-03-31
Form: 20FR12B
Chunk 152
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 are, in many cases, essential raw materials and commodities on which growing global populations and economic development rely. They are used across many basic industries including manufacturing, construction and food. Dry bulk trade is often divided at a high level into “major bulk” and “minor bulk” commodities.

The major bulks consist of iron ore, coal and grain, and trade in these commodities totaled 3.5 billion tonnes in 2024. Minor bulks, meanwhile, cover a wide variety of commodities, such as forest products, iron and steel products, fertilisers, agricultural products, metal ores, minerals and petcoke, cement, other construction materials, scrap metal and salt, and totaled a combined 2.3 billion tonnes in 2024.

As of February 2025, there are 14,155 dry bulk vessels with an aggregate carrying capacity of over 1.0 billion dwt in the fleet (around 43% of the total global cargo fleet by capacity). Dry bulk markets are highly competitive: charter rates are sensitive to changes in demand for, and supply of, shipping capacity, and are consequently cyclical and volatile.

Dry bulk freight and charter markets saw positive trends across 2024, with dry bulk trade volumes having grown firmly recently (growth of approximately 3.5% per annum was seen across 2023-24), while fleet growth has been moderate in recent years and other factors, notably the diversion of vessels away from the Red Sea towards longer-distance trade routes, have additionally tightened vessel capacity.

#### Types of Dry Bulk Vessels
The Capesize sector includes vessels of over 100,000 dwt, which are typically used to transport large cargoes of iron ore, coal, and increasingly bauxite on major, often long-haul trade routes, and in many cases into Asia. These vessels had traditionally been regarded as being too large to transit the Panama Canal, though the widening of the canal means that many ships in this sector are now able to transit, though typically not when fully laden. Key designs within this category include “standard” Capesizes of approximately 180,000 dwt, “Newcastlemaxes” of approximately 210,000 dwt, “Wozmaxes” of approximately 250,000 dwt and Very Large Ore Carriers (VLOCs) of up to 400,000 dwt.

The Panamax sector is mainly comprised of vessels of 70,000-99,999 dwt (though it also includes some older designs of