Chinese trader Jovo Energy is offering a Medmax-sized LNG carrier newbuilding for resale six years after it first started looking at constructing its own gas carrier tonnage.
Brokers said the 79,800-cbm Mulan Spirit has been put on the market.
The two-stroke vessel is being built at Jiangnan Shipyard in Shanghai, China.
Jovo is said to be asking for about $175m for the niche-sized ship. The company is believed to have paid around $120m when it was contracted in 2021.
Databases show the vessel as due for delivery later this year but those following the ship said it is being offered for handover dates in 2024.
TradeWinds has asked Jovo for confirmation and comment on its decision to sell the newbuilding.
Jovo ordered two 80,000-cbm LNG carriers at Jiangnan in 2018 after conducting a tender the previous year.
The trading company initially said it was waiting for the completion of its then-planned IPO to fund them. But the orders appear to have lapsed.
Jovo was listed on the main board of the Shanghai Stock Exchange in May 2021. That year, the company confirmed the order for the Mulan Spirit, with construction starting in December.
The ship was launched at a ceremony in February 2023.
Jovo — which became China’s first private LNG terminal operator when the company started operations at its Dongguan Jiufeng facility on the Pearl River in 2012 — originally started importing LNG into China on smaller-sized vessels due to draught restrictions at its terminal.
International trades
But sources following the company said it appears to be moving to larger LNG carriers as it expands to trade full cargoes on an international basis.
Jovo is no stranger to the LNG carrier sales market.
In February, TradeWinds reported that the company had bought a Japanese-controlled, 15-year-old steam-turbine LNG carrier from Imabari Shipbuilding’s shipowning arm, Shoei Kisen Kaisha.
The vessel was named as the 154,982-cbm Trinity Arrow (built 2008), with a price tag of about $60m being quoted.
In early 2021, Jovo paid around $37m to buy the 138,000-cbm steam-turbine Pioneer Spirit (ex-LNG Pioneer, built 2005) from Mitsui OSK Lines of Japan.
The following year, the company made what appeared to be its third secondhand LNG carrier purchase when it bought the 74,130-cbm Medmax LNG carrier Global Energy (built 2006) from French energy major TotalEnergies.
Activity heated up in the secondhand sales market for LNG carriers in 2022 and has continued into this year.
This month, Fearnley LNG reported that 11 secondhand LNG carriers have been sold and six sent for demolition so far in 2023.
But brokers said the bulk of the LNG carriers on the market are steam-turbine vessels as owners look to renew and upgrade their fleets to larger, more-efficient vessels as tougher emissions regulations take force.
In contrast, there have been few resales. With shipyards full and LNG carrier newbuilding prices high, owners have largely chosen to hold on to their vessels.
The exception has been Russian tonnage, where international sanctions have made it impossible for contractors to continue building work.
