Great Eastern Shipping has continued to clear out older tonnage after snapping up more modern tankers.
India’s largest privately controlled shipowner said it had contracted to sell the 46,300-dwt MR tanker Jag Pahel (built 2004) for an undisclosed price.
The Mumbai-listed company said the unnamed buyer is an unaffiliated third party.
The vessel will be delivered to the new owner by the end of June.
The Jag Pahel is worth $17.7m, according to VesselsValue, up from $9m two years ago.
It has been owned by Great Eastern since delivery.
The vessel is among the company’s oldest, but a VLGC and another MR still date from 2002 and 2003.
Excluding the Jag Pahel, the fleet stands at 42 ships, including 28 tankers, as well as bulkers and LPG carriers.
In February, the owner revealed an MR product tanker purchase, its second in a matter of weeks — the 50,100-dwt Ardmore Seafarer (built 2010), which brokers reported sold for $27.2m by Ardmore Shipping.
Bulker and tanker moved out
It will be arriving before the end of June.
Great Eastern recently offloaded an older bulker and product tanker, while bringing in the two newer vessels of the same type.
The Ardmore deal had meant it was more likely another elderly tanker would be sold.
Ardmore paid $16.7m for the ship in 2020 from Fuyo Kaiun of Japan.
Chief financial officer G Shivakumar had earlier told an earnings call that Great Eastern would not be drawn into the sale-and-purchase fray beyond like-for-like fleet renewal deals.
He said the company still viewed vessel prices as too high: “We’ll be a little slow to make new purchases.”
