Dry bulk ship owner Diana Shipping Inc. has, through a separate wholly owned subsidiary, inked a deal to acquire a new-building Capesize dry bulk vessel of approximately 180,000 dwt for a purchase price of US$50 million.

The vessel has been built by Qingdao Beihai Shipbuilding Heavy Industry Co., China. The vessel is expected to be delivered to the company by mid-January 2015.

Excluding the newly acquired vessel, as well as two new-building Newcastlemax and one new-building Kamsarmax dry bulk vessels expected to be delivered to the company during the second quarter of 2016, Diana Shipping’s fleet currently consists of 39 dry bulk vessels (2 Newcastlemax, 11 Capesize, 3 Post-Panamax, 3 Kamsarmax and 20 Panamax).

As of today, the combined carrying capacity of Diana’s fleet, excluding the four vessels not yet delivered, is approximately 4.4 million dwt with a weighted average age of 6.99 years.

Diana’s vessels are employed primarily on medium to long-term time charters and transport a range of dry bulk cargoes, including such commodities as iron ore, coal, grain and other materials along worldwide shipping routes.