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Chinese buyers have been the main force in the 2025 secondhand capesize market, and Winning Shipping has emerged as the most aggressive name in the pack. In late December, brokers identified another elderly Newcastlemax joining Winning’s fleet, reinforcing a pattern: older Japanese built capes being pulled into a Guinea to China bauxite shuttle where volume, reliability, and draft-friendly ports matter as much as fuel efficiency.
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China’s capesize buying spree has a clear leader
China has dominated 2025’s secondhand capesize market, and Winning Shipping has been the most active buyer, reportedly closing in on double-digit capesize purchases. The latest named addition is the 18-year-old Universal-built Newcastlemax London Spirit, bought for an undisclosed price and tied to a wider run of “vintage” Newcastlemax deals over the past six months.
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The deal tape in one line
A concentrated China-led buyer group is soaking up older capes and Newcastlemaxes, keeping liquidity high and values supported for ships that can be put straight to work. -
Why Winning keeps buying older ships
Secondhand tonnage is immediate capacity. The trade-off is higher maintenance planning and tighter reliability management, but it avoids newbuild lead times and gets ships earning now. -
The corridor doing the heavy lifting
Winning’s added large-bulker capacity is reported as deployed on the Guinea to China bauxite run. In the Newcastlemax segment alone, the group is described as adding roughly 1.5 million dwt of carrying capacity during 2025. -
A wider signal beyond dry bulk
Separate data cited in the same reporting points to Winning-linked tanker orders: three 115,000 dwt Aframax newbuildings at K Shipbuilding, slated for 2027–2028 delivery, showing capital is being deployed across cycles, not only in bulkers.
This is less about one ship deal and more about buyer concentration. When China absorbs older capesize supply in blocks and one operator keeps stacking repeat purchases, replacement cost rises for everyone else and secondhand pricing stays firmer than many would expect for vintage tonnage.
The 2025 secondhand capesize market is ending the year with a clear tilt toward Chinese buyers, and Winning Shipping has become the name most frequently associated with repeat purchases in the larger-size bands. The thread tying those deals together is not just asset play, but a cargo program that rewards scale and fast-to-earn tonnage, particularly on the Guinea to China bauxite corridor. At the same time, the concentration of buying and the reliance on a single export geography means the story remains tied to operational reliability and to how smoothly Guinea’s mining and export environment holds up as volumes and oversight pressures evolve.
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