Formosa Plastics Marine Corp (FPMC) has put another LR1 product tanker on the sales block after selling two vessels in the same class less than a month ago.
The Taiwanese shipowner - a shipping arm of Formosa Plastics Group - is inviting bids from interested buyers to be submitted for the 74,800-dwt FPMC P Glory (built 2009) by the end of this month, brokers said.
“Several buyers will offer by the deadline,” says one of them, but their identities are yet to be known.
VesselsValue estimates a vessel of the FPMC P Glory's characteristics is worth nearly $18m, while Maritime Strategies International puts its value in the $19m to $23.2m range.
The intended sale comes after FPMC reportedly sold the 70,500-dwt FPMC P Alpine (built 2004) and Formosa Falcon (built 2005) for nearly $16.4m enbloc to Winson Group.
Officials from FPMC and Winson declined to comment on the transaction.
Earlier, TradeWinds reported FPMC was mulling over selling all the LR1 tankers on its fleet as their fuel economics would worsen after the IMO 2020 bunker rules come into force.
Including FPMC P Glory, FPMC still has a quartet of LR1 vessels on its fleet. All of them were delivered from STX Offshore & Shipbuilding in 2009.
Asset prices of product tankers have shown signs of recovery in recent weeks, with some market players expecting an upturn in freight markets to come soon on the back of slowing newbuilding deliveries and more cargo movements across the regions.
According to VesselsValue, the value of a nine-year-old LR1 tanker is at $18.29m, up 1.5% from from the level seen in early September.
