Greece: Diana Shipping Announces Time Charter and Loan Facility

Diana Shipping Inc., on Friday  announced that it has entered into a time charter contract with EDF Trading Ltd., London, for one of its Panamax dry bulk carriers, the m/v “Coronis”, at a gross charter rate of US$10,600 per day, minus a 5% commission paid to third parties, for a period of about twenty-one (21) months to about twenty-seven (27) months. The charter is expected to commence in the beginning of March.

This employment is anticipated to generate approximately US$6.6 million of gross revenue for the minimum scheduled period of the charter.

The Coronis is a 74,381 dwt Panamax dry bulk vessel built in 2006.

Separately, the Company also announced that on February 15, 2012, through one of its wholly owned subsidiaries, it completed the drawdown of US$37.45 million from its previously announced loan facility of US$82.6 million with The Export-Import Bank of China (“China Eximbank”) having a majority interest and DNB Bank ASA as agent. The purpose of this drawdown was to partially finance the acquisition cost of the newly built m/v “Los Angeles”, which was delivered to the Company on February 8, 2012.

Diana Shipping Inc.’s fleet currently consists of 26 dry bulk carriers (16 Panamax, 1 Post-Panamax, 8 Capesize and 1 Newcastlemax) with a weighted average age of 5.9 years. The Company also previously announced one additional Newcastlemax new-building dry bulk carrier that is expected to be delivered during the second quarter of 2012.