Norway’s Nordic American Tankers (NAT) has offloaded its oldest ship, the last of four sisters built in 2002.
The US-listed shipowner said the 160,000-dwt suezmax Nordic Moon had gone to an unnamed buyer for $16m.
VesselsValue assesses the ship as worth nearer to $18m. The tanker will be delivered this month.
The three other 2002-built suezmaxes were shipped out in January and March this year.
Out of a fleet of 16 operational units, NAT now has three tankers built in 2003, two dating from 2004 and another three constructed the year after.
The rest were built from 2010 onwards.
NAT banked $15m each for the Nordic Passat and Nordic Grace in March.
These went to unknown interests, but appear to have been quickly flipped to cash buyers for recycling.
The Passat went to Pakistan, while Global Marketing Systems (GMS) picked up the Grace and renamed it Iria for demolition in India, VesselsValue data shows.
Scrap prices were not reported.
Second new ship arriving
NAT said it plans to take delivery of its second new suezmax from Samsung Heavy Industries in South Korea at the end of this month.
The vessel will start a six-year charter at that point.
The first newbuilding from Samsung was added to the fleet in May, and this tanker also began a six-year deal.
“A strong balance sheet is essential. The NAT debt is low compared with other US-listed tanker companies,” the company added.
“NAT is in a positive phase of development,” the owner said.
The fourth older tanker, the Nordic Mistral, went to Greek shipowner World Carrier Corp, which renamed it Cactus.
NAT followed other crude tanker owners in posting a first-quarter loss last month, but has fallen behind an improving market.
The Herbjorn Hansson-led suezmax specialist reported a $27m loss for the first three months of 2022 and has booked 70% of its second-quarter revenue days at $20,000 per day.
