Saudi shipping giant Bahri has reportedly bought two Chinese-built MR2 product tankers from Singapore-based IMC Shipping.
US-based brokers said the Guangzhou CSSC Longxue Shipbuilding-built 50,000-dwt Maritime Inspiration and Maritime Verity (both built 2021) were sold for a total of $96m.
VesselsValue estimated the ships as worth $57.2m each on Wednesday, although brokers said that as sales of similar vessels of similar age have been almost non-existent this year, determining the value would be difficult.
The only comparable sale was in April, when Toyota Marine of Japan bought Union Maritime’s 50,000-dwt Avon (built 2019) for $45.5m in a deal that included a time charter back to the seller.
Bahri has been extremely active in the sale-and-purchase market this year, spending about $1.6bn on 13 VLCCs, a multipurpose heavylift ship, an ultramax bulker and now the IMC MR2 pair.
At the same time, Bahri has sold two of its oldest VLCCs and a 2006-built MR2 product tanker.
The Maritime Inspiration and Maritime Verity are part of a series of eight sister product tankers that were delivered to Aurora Tankers, IMC’s tanker arm, in 2020 and 2021.
In recent years IMC, which is part of the Tsao Pao Chee Group headed by Chavalit Frederick Tsao, has adopted an asset-lite business model, although Aurora Tankers still owns a fleet of about 20 product tankers.
IMC’s forays into the sale-and-purchase market for IMC in recent years, either as a buyer or seller, have been few and far between.
Neither Bahri nor IMC have yet commented on the reported deal.
