Owners of elderly crude tankers are increasingly testing the waters for secondhand sales.
This is according to Eva Tzima, head of research at Greece’s Seaborne Shipbrokers, who has noted more ships coming onto the market.
She said tanker earnings have shown signs of bottoming out, with rates on several key trading routes either advancing or holding on to their levels.
The stabilising market has coincided with the start of the traditionally busier period for the sector, helping support sentiment, Tzima added.
She said the availability of newly emerging candidates has been rising lately, with most of the ships marketed being older VLCCs and suezmaxes.
These units have been attracting a lot of interest from Chinese buyers, Tzima said.
But she added owners have not been in “rushed selling mode”.
“They are merely willing to test the market with one or two vessels, asking levels which include a premium over last-done transaction prices,” Tzima added.
“When the desired bid does not come, they refrain from selling,” she said.
And Tzima believes sellers have a positive view on improving freight performance in the months ahead, allowing them to secure their desired price, or even higher.
Secondhand arena goes quiet
Outside of Capital Ship Management’s mammoth sale of its nine-ship modern VLCC fleet to Saudi Arabia’s Bahri, the last secondhand VLCC deals were recorded a month ago.
The 302,000-dwt Apollo Harmony (built 2010) went for about $55m to a joint venture of Maersk and Schoeller-controlled Columbia Group, while Patria Nusasegara was said to have offloaded the 300,000-dwt PNS Serena (built 2006) to an unknown buyer for $42m.
The PNS Serena was due for a special survey, VesselsValue said.
Belgium’s Euronav also sold a 2012-built VLCC to TotalEnergies for conversion into an FPSO.
