Dry-bulk shipping is a volatile business. Its cycles are vicious, even in normal times. These, however, are not normal times, and the mariners that haul the world’s raw materials hither and yon across the high seas face a slew of challenges,

from Chinese demand for iron ore to the supply of new vessels set to come into service in the coming months and years.

In
our most recent poll, we asked readers of TheStreet to weigh in on
which dry-bulker’s stock they considered the riskiest play in the
industry (out of a group five companies).

The results, so far, are
interesting: Perhaps holding to the ancient precepts of risk-reward,
voters chose DryShips as the riskiest stock — and it wasn’t even
close, with the company garnering 45% of the clicks.

This follows
an earlier survey by the TheStreet that showed that readers believe
DryShips to be the hottest stock in the sector. It’s also not exactly a
shock, since DryShips’ chief George Economou is known as a gambler –
though the evidence suggests that has gone a bit conservative with his
chartering strategy.

In fact, DryShips has come out on top on all
three of our dry-bulk polls; our previous survey asked readers to weigh
in on which shipper had the savviest chartering strategy.

Second
place in our riskiest poll goes to New York’s own Eagle Bulk Shipping 
taking 17.4% of the votes. Next were FreeSeas (15.7%), Excel Maritime
(12.5%) and Paragon (nearly 12%).

Source: The Street

Search to find what you want

• Hottest Dry Bulk Shipping Stock: DryShips

    What’s the most popular dry-bulk shipping stock riding the equities-markets waves? The answer is about as surprising as “Yankees” in a poll that asks for a favorite baseball club. It’s DryShips, of course! The company garnered some 46% of the final tally, or about 3400 votes. Diana Shipping, the conservative ying

• DryShips, there is agreement with Commerzbank and West LB waiver of conditions for reaching $ 70 million of debt

     DryShips Inc. (NASDAQ:DRYS) (the ‘Company’ or ‘Dryships’), a global provider of marine transportation services for drybulk cargoes and off-shore contract drilling oil services, announced today that it has signed an agreement with Commerzbank and West LB on waiver terms for $70 million of our outstanding debt

• DryShips, there are agreements with Nord LB and West LB conditions for giving up a total of U.S. $ 183 million of debt signed

     DryShips Inc., a global provider of marine transportation services for drybulk cargoes and off-shore contract drilling oil services, announced today that it has signed agreements with Nord LB and West LB on waiver terms for $116 million and $67 million respectively of our outstanding debt. George Economou, Chairman and Chief Executive

• DryShips announced it has signed agreements with Nord LB and West LB on Waiver of Conditions for a Total Signed

    DryShips Inc., a global provider of marine transportation services for drybulk cargoes and off-shore contract drilling oil services, announced yesteday that it has signed agreements with Nord LB and West LB on waiver terms for $116 million and $67 million respectively of our outstanding debt. George Economou, Chairman and Chief

• Dryships announces agreement with West LB on the conditions for exemption from U.S. $ 71 million debt

     DryShips Inc., a global provider of marine transportation services for drybulk cargoes and off-shore contract drilling oil services, announced today that it has reached agreement with West LB on waiver terms for $71 million of our outstanding debt. This agreement is subject to customary documentation. George Economou, Chairman and Chief Executive

• DryShips announces the acquisition of two Panamax vessels

    DryShips Inc., a global provider of marine transportation services for drybulk cargoes and off-shore contract drilling oil services, announced yesterday an agreement to acquire two Panamax vessels for an aggregate price of $75.76m. The vessels, a 76,635 dwt Panamax built in 2007, and a 76,635 dwt Panamax built in 2006,

• DryShips announces termination of agreement to acquire two Panamax vessels

    DryShips Inc., a global provider of marine transportation services for drybulk cargoes and off-shore contract drilling oil services, announced today that its previously announced agreement to acquire 2 Panamax vessels has been terminated. George Economou, Chief Executive Officer of the Company, commented: “The acquisition of the 2 Panamax vessels has

• DryShips announces it has signed an agreement with Nord LB Waiver conditions for reaching $ 116 million of debt

    DryShips Inc., a global provider of marine transportation services for drybulk cargoes and offshore oil ultra deep water drilling, announced yesterday that it has reached an agreement with Nord LB on waiver terms for $116 million of our outstanding debt. This agreement is subject to customary documentation. George Economou, Chairman and

• DryShips drills: Best in Class of One?

    It remains one of the riskier stocks around. Breaches in loan covenants that have required waiver after waiver. A rather non-transparent management structure led by a cult-figure CEO. A volatile core business. What’s not to love? Given the many risks and potential pitfalls to investing in its stock, it’s arguably difficult to

• Expect Smooth Sailing for DryShips

     As regular readers would know, DryShips has been one of my favorites for some time, as both myself and Paul have published a number of research articles on this one including a report on how DRYS was trading well behind the Baltic Index. DRYS and GE marked our financial services

• DryShips Announces Appointment of Chief Financial Officer

    DryShips Inc., a global provider of marine transportation services for drybulk cargoes and off-shore contract drilling oil services, announced yesterday that it named Ziad Nakhleh as the Company’s Chief Financial Officer effective November 1, 2009. This position was previously occupied on an interim basis by Mr. George Economou, Chairman and

• Hottest Small Dry-Bulk Carriers: Seafreight

    This week we asked or readers to register their opinions on the smaller players in the dry-bulk world: those shippers with tiny market caps (each of the four stocks on our list save one trades for under $2 a share) and tiny fleets, but who may nonetheless show signs of

• DryShips announces it has signed an agreement with West LB for annulment of Use for $ 71 million of debt

    DryShips Inc., a global provider of marine transportation services for drybulk cargoes and off-shore contract drilling oil services, announced yesterday that it has reached agreement with West LB on waiver terms for $71 million of our outstanding debt. This agreement is subject to customary documentation. George Economou, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, commented:

• DryShips announces the results of its 2009 Annual General Meeting

    DryShips Inc., a global provider of marine transportation services for drybulk cargoes and offshore oil deep water drilling, announced yesterday the results of the annual general meeting of its shareholders (the “AGM”). The following proposals were approved and adopted at the meeting: –  The election of two Class B Directors of

• DryShips announced a contract with Commerzbank and WestLB on Waiver Conditions for $ 70 million achieved

    DryShips Inc., a global provider of marine transportation services for drybulk cargoes and off-shore contract drilling oil services, announced yesterday that it has signed an agreement with Commerzbank and West LB on waiver terms for $70 million of our outstanding debt. This agreement is subject to customary documentation. George Economou,