Japan’s NYK Line is continuing to reduce its presence in the LR2 segment.
The shipping giant has sold its only owned LR2 — the 105,300-dwt Champion Prince (built 2012).
Managers at Greece's Eastern Mediterranean Maritime (Eastmed) confirmed the company bought the Hyundai Heavy Industries-built product carrier for about $24m.
Sale-and-purchase brokers reported the exact acquisition price at $24.1m, which reflects pressure on values of such product tankers.
Last month, NYK sold the sistership Champion Princess to India's Great Eastern Shipping for a reported $26.5m. That vessel, now trading as the Jag Lara, is only three months younger than the Champion Prince.
“The resale price of LR2s is heading south because the spot market for such tankers is getting bad,” said a tanker player.
The Champion Prince's sale to Eastmed leaves the Japanese shipping giant with just two time-chartered LR2s — the 106,000-dwt Champion Pleasure (built 2008) and 115,000-dwt Champion Prosperity (built 2009). The product carrier duo is owned by Kyoei Tankers of Japan.
NYK’s LR2 sales have led some market watchers to speculate that the company is quitting the sector.
“NYK operates its LR2 fleet on the spot market. With the sector not doing well, it can easily redeliver the chartered tankers to Kyoei and quit the business,” said one market player.
NYK’s Champion Prince and Champion Princess were two of five newbuildings originally ordered by the company in 2007 as 4,500-teu containerships. In 2010, however, the shipowner struck a deal with the yard to swap three of these for capesize bulker newbuildings and two for LR2s.
According to VesselsValue, NYK Line has sold 13 vessels this year, including the Champion Prince.
String of acquisitions
Thanassis Martinos-controlled Eastmed has been making headlines as a ship seller for much of this year.
Between April and September, the company is estimated to have raised more than $130m in the secondhand market from the sale of three VLCCs, three aframaxes and one MR tanker. All these units were built in 1999 or 2000.
In October, however, Martinos started spending some of the money he made in these successful deals on the acquisition of younger tonnage, with a bias for bulkers.
Company managers confirmed to TradeWinds that Eastmed is behind the acquisition of the 60,000-dwt SBI Zeus (built 2016) — one of several vessels that Scorpio Bulkers has been offloading this year as it repurposes itself into an owner of wind turbine installation vessels (WTIVs). The SBI Zeus changed hands for $18.5m.
Eastmed has pounced on panamax bulkers as well. In October, the company acquired the 77,200-dwt Crimson Monarch (built 2014) for about $17.5m. The vessel was previously controlled by Japan's Marubeni.
The acquisition of the Champion Prince proves that at least some of Eastmed's tanker sales earlier this year were meant as part of a fleet renewal rather than as a net reduction of its exposure to oil carriers.
The company's website lists a fleet of 74 managed vessels on the water comprising 25 tankers, 39 bulkers and 10 boxships.
