Shipping Corp of India has launched a tender to acquire a secondhand MR product tanker.
The tender comes just weeks after SCI published tenders to buy gas and offshore tonnage.
Tender documents posted on the company’s website specify that potential purchase candidates must be vessels of between 46,000 dwt and 52,000 dwt that are no more than 15 years old.
SCI also specified that it will only consider vessels built at a “reputed shipyard”, equipped with major components manufactured by an original equipment manufacturer or a licensee from South Korea, Japan or Europe.
Offers are to be submitted by 9 May, with the vessel price to be quoted on a delivery basis at Fujairah.
SCI is India’s largest tanker operator, owning around 30 crude and product tankers across the size spectrums.
However, the company has a very small presence in the handy MR segment, with just three MR2 product tankers in its fleet.
A 1998-built MR1 product tanker, the 32,900-dwt Suvarna Swarajya, was sold for recycling in March.
Brokers estimate that SCI would have to pay in the region of $24m if it were to select the smallest, oldest ship meeting its tender criteria.
Baseline prices for 50,000-dwt MR2 product tankers are estimated by VesselsValue to be $25.67m for a 15-year-old vessel, $37.24m for a 10-year-old vessel, $47.48m for a five-year-old vessel and $55m for a newbuilding resale.
SCI has been largely absent from the sale-and-purchase market in recent years but now appears to be going through a growth spurt.
In early April, it launched tenders for a VLGC of up to 15 years of age, with a capacity between 79,000 cbm and 84,000 cbm, alongside a multipurpose platform supply vessel or offshore support vessel of up to 10 years old. The results of these tenders have yet to be announced.
Government sources previously told the Economic Times of India that SCI’s acquisition wishlist for this year includes a container ship bigger than 9,000 teu and an anchor-handling tug supply vessel.
