A veteran suezmax tanker has been reported sold for further trading at an eye-catching $27m.
Brokers said the price of Monaco owner International Andromeda Shipping’s 151,000-dwt White Trader (built 1999) is double the scrap value.
This shows how desperate owners are to get their hands on tonnage to trade in tight tanker markets increasingly split between mainstream cargo deals and those involving Russian crude.
The buyer is an unknown Chinese company.
The ship was bought from the Alafouzos family’s Kyklades Maritime of Greece in 2017 for just $12.3m.
A year ago, the suezmax was worth $14.75m.
UK valuation platform VesselsValue assesses the ship at $24.8m now. The scrap value is $13.7m.
AIS data shows the vessel has been renamed as the FC Star.
The single-ship-owning company is listed as Navigation Sail Shipping, registered in Hong Kong.
International Andromeda Shipping has been contacted for comment.
Norwegian shipbroker Cleaves described this as “the deal of the week”.
The company said that in comparison to tanker freight markets that have seen aframaxes earning more than $100,000 per day, the number of deals in the sale and purchase sector may seem modest.
But there are still notable transactions taking place, the broker added.
MR goes for $41m
Another one of these is the sale of the 50,000-dwt MR PTI Danube (built 2017).
The South Korean-built clean tanker has gone for $41m, brokers said.
The seller is China’s Minsheng Financial Leasing, with an unknown European operator linked to the deal.
The tanker was one of only two LR1s left in Minsheng’s fleet of tankers now numbering 23 ships, including two VLCCs and two aframaxes.
