ATHENS (Bloomberg) ? Greek shipping companies First Financial Corp., Golden Energy Management SA and Drytank SA may sell shares to finance new vessels, betting that demand from China will boost freight rates after a slump since November.

?Our company is very profitable at the moment, so we?re exploring the possibility of going public,? Kostas Koutsoubelis, finance director of First Financial, said in an interview. The company, controlled by the Restis family in Athens, values its 63- ship fleet at $750 million.

The Bloomberg Tanker Index of seven shipping companies gained 82 percent last year, making it the third-best performer of the 480 industry indexes ranked by Bloomberg. Chinese demand boosted freight rates for carrying commodities such as oil and coal to records, swelling profits for shipowners including A.P. Moeller- Maersk A/S and Bermuda-based Frontline Ltd.

Greece is home to about 900 shipping companies, according to the Hellenic Chamber of Shipping in Athens. Four are publicly traded. Most Greek operators, registered in Bermuda in the Caribbean, are closely held and aren?t required to make financial statements public.

?The appetite for shipping stocks is very strong,? said Theodore Petropoulos, co-managing director of Athens-based consultant Petrofin SA. Sellers ?will probably use the money to buy more ships or fund acquisitions.?

First Financial in November bought 32 dry-bulk vessels, used to haul coal, iron ore and grain, from Malaysian International Shipping Corp. for $740 million.

Freight rates for oil tankers from the Persian Gulf have plunged almost 75 percent from November?s records as the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries agreed to cut production. The Baltic Dry Index, measuring the cost to ship dry- bulk commodities, has slumped by almost a third from a record 6208 points on December 6, according to the Baltic Exchange in London.

?We are not so positive about shipping stocks in the short term given how much freight rates have fallen,? Jonas Andreasson, who helps oversee about $40 million at Tufton Oceanic, said by phone from London. ?In the long term, we are much more positive based on demand from both China and India.?

Average earnings for two million-barrel oil tankers on the benchmark routes between the Persian Gulf and Asia may fall by a third to $66,250 a day this year, according to a survey of eight analysts by Bloomberg last month. That?s still more than double what Frontline, the world?s largest oil-tanker operator, needs to break even on its 35 largest vessels.

For dry-bulk ships, average earnings for a benchmark Capesize vessel that carries as much as 175,000 metric tons of cargo may fall by a quarter to $52,500 a day in 2005, according to a Bloomberg survey. The average break-even rate for a modern vessel is about $15,000 a day, according to analysts? estimates.

?Shipowners will likely still be reaping near-peak profits,? even as rates decline, Jonathan Chappell, shipping analyst at JPMorgan Chase & Co., said in a January 4 note.

Athens-based Golden Energy, which manages Restis Group?s six oil tankers, may sell shares in six months, Director Kyriacos Zarvanos said in November. George Economou, founder of Drytank, said the operator of 30 oil and dry-bulk vessels plans to offer shares ?very soon?.

?Shipping is the best business to be in right now,? Economou said in an interview from Athens. He didn?t elaborate.

At least seven shipping companies, including Shanghai-based China Shipping Container Lines Co., China?s second-largest, and Bermuda-based Arlington Tankers Ltd., sold shares for the first time in 2004 on exchanges in the US, Hong Kong and Oslo.

Other shipowners outside Greece such as Oslo?s Wilson Eurocarriers and IMC Shipping in Singapore are planning share sales this year, according to ship finance magazine Marine Money.

Tsakos Energy Navigation Ltd., based in Athens and listed in both New York Stock and Oslo, surged 94 percent in value last year to $707 million. Athens-based Top Tankers Inc. climbed 53 percent from its July 22 debut, valuing the company at $430 million. The S&P 500, by comparison, rose nine percent and Europe?s Dow Jones Stoxx 50 added 4.3 percent.

Greek shipowners operate about a fifth of the world?s vessels by capacity, with 3,000 carriers totalling 149 million deadweight tons, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development estimated last year. Athens-based Anangel-American Shipholdings Ltd. exited the Nasdaq in 2002 after the founding Angelicoussis family bought all the companies? shares. ?Some Greek owners don?t have the culture to respond to the high demands of investors and analysts,? Nikolas Tsakos, the 41-year-old president and chief executive of Tsakos Energy, said in an interview at the company?s headquarters. ?They don?t know what they are up against by going public.?

The ones that sold stock in 2004 are using the proceeds to expand. Excel Maritime Carriers Ltd., a Bermuda-based company with Greek management, raised about $51.8 million in December by selling 2.2 million shares on the American Stock Exchange. Excel bought three dry-bulk vessels for delivery next year.