India’s Great Eastern Shipping has tapped into the secondhand market with a deal that helps renew its VLGC fleet.
Sale-and-purchase brokers said the Mumbai-based company has acquired the 79,514-cbm gas carrier Grace River (built 2003) from K Line for $34m.
They added that Great Eastern has bought the Kawasaki Heavy Industries-built LPG carrier to replace the 78,503-cbm Jag Vidhi (built 1996), which it recently sold.
The buyer of the Jag Vidhi is not known, but some S&P brokers said the company is from the Middle East. The sale price has not been disclosed.
The Mitsubishi Heavy Industries-built VLGC has a market value of $16.05m, according to VesselsValue.
Great Eastern bought the Jag Vidhi, formerly the Gas Vision, from South Korea’s KSS Line in 2016 for $37m.
The sale of the Grace River marks the second time K Line has tried to unload the vessel to Indian interests. In March, the Japanese shipowner was reported to have sold the VLGC to India’s Bashundhara LP Gas but the deal failed because crew exchange was scuppered by coronavirus restrictions.
K Line and Great Eastern did not respond to a request for comment.
In a post on Great Eastern’s website, the company disclosed it has acquired a Japanese-constructed VLGC built in 2012. The company did not reveal the name but said the ship is expected to join its fleet in the third quarter of next year.
Great Eastern also added it will be delivering the Jag Vidhi to the buyer in the same period.
First VLGC buy since 2018
The last time the Mumbai-headquartered company acquired a secondhand VLGC was in 2018.
It bought the 81,000-cbm British Councillor (built 2007) from BP for about $41m. The MHI-built ship has since been renamed the Jag Vasant.
Great Eastern owns 46 vessels. The fleet is made up of 13 bulkers, 28 tankers and five gas ships.
