The company is close to finalising the sale of the 75,000-dwt sisterships National Prestige (built 1996) and National Prosperity (built 1995) for $45m and $46m, respectively. They will be delivered to their new owner in August. EMI will have the vessels on bareboat charter until the end of this year.

Last month, a sistership, the Giovanni Bottiglieri (built 1995), was said to have been sold for $47m. The price gap is likely down to the different delivery dates.

German bulker specialist H Vogemann is believed to be the buyer of the ships but is not willing to comment.

Sources say the German buyer has already fixed the National Prestige and National Prosperity to a South Korean charterer for two years at close to $34,000 per day. The low rate can be explained by the presence of the bareboat charters, sources say.

The pair was previously owned by a Danish Difko (limited partnership) company and had been on long-term charter with purchase options to Taiwan's National Shipping.

They were originally ordered for $32m each.

National Shipping went bankrupt some seven years ago. The vessels were then taken over by ETI, which had earlier bought out Far Eastern Silo. ETI has since been renamed EMI.

If the latest deal is finalised, EMI will be left controlling 10 panamax bulkers built between 1992 and 1997. The company owns three of them.

Listed in Tapei, EMI can trace its shipping roots back more than 30 years.

Last year, H Vogemann launched into tanker ownership with an order for two 38,500-dwt vessels. They are scheduled for delivery in 2009 from Guangzhou Shipyard International (GSI) in China.

By Hans Henrik Thaulow and Trond Lillestolen , Shanghai and Oslo