Quintana Prices Bunge Charters for 2009 at $21,800 Per Day
Quintana Maritime Limited has secured fourteen Kamsarmaxes and three Panamaxes, which were acquired from Metrobulk, under its master time charter with Bunge S.A. for 2009 at an average daily rate of approximately $21,800 per day, which is the ceiling of the rate band for that period. The newly fixed vessels were delivered to Quintana from August 2006 to April 2007. Sixteen of the seventeen vessels are already on long-term charter under a master time charter to Bunge S.A., a wholly owned subsidiary of Bunge Limited (NYSE:BG), an integrated global agribusiness. An additional Panamax, Grain Harvester, is fixed on a separate time charter with Bunge through September 2009 at $20,000 per day and was delivered to Quintana in September 2006. As part of the 2009 negotiations, Grain Harvester will become subject to the master time charter upon expiration of its existing charter in late 2009.As a result of these fixtures, almost 74% of Quintana's expected net operating days of the entire fleet are secured on time charters in 2009, corresponding to approximately $186 million in expected net revenues. The Company has already secured approximately 96% of the full fleet's expected net operating days for 2007 and approximately 81% for 2008 on fixed charters, corresponding to approximately $215 million and $209 million in expected revenues, respectively.