Torm and Maersk Product Tankers have each sold an MR product tanker lately as the two major Danish owners continue to shed old tonnage.
Brokers reported that the 45,000-dwt Torm Camilla (built 2003), which was built at STX Offshore & Shipbuilding, was sold for $9.75m to an unspecified Chinese company.
The 36,800-dwt Maersk Edward (built 2005) — constructed by China’s Jinling Shipyard — was reported sold for $7.1m before its special survey. No information on the buyer is available.
Torm declined to comment. Maersk Product Tankers confirmed it reached an agreement to sell the Maersk Edward but declined to comment on the price and buyer.
VesselsValue estimates the Torm Camilla is worth $8.77m and the Maersk Edward $9.62m.
The younger ship ended up sold at a lower price due to its size, perceived quality and costs related to the special survey, said a broker.
“It’s Chinese built,” he said. “This makes sense to me.”
Falling asset prices
Secondhand tanker prices have been decreasing since the second quarter, in line with weakening freight market conditions.
Clarksons Research data showed spot MR earnings averaged $6,198 per day in October, the lowest monthly average in more than two years.
Many analysts believe tanker markets will remain depressed in the coming quarters, with sluggish oil demand during the coronavirus pandemic.
“The news of an effective vaccine offers some hope of a global oil demand recovery but, however it comes about, it will be slow and drawn out, and it will be at least 2022 before global oil demand returns to pre-pandemic levels,” industry group Bimco said in a research note.
With new decarbonisation regulations set to come into force later this decade, many owners have been selling old, less fuel-efficient vessels in recent months.
Getting rid of veteran tonnage
In the second and third quarters, Copenhagen and Nasdaq-listed Torm sold five MRs and two LR2s built between 1997 and 2002 as part of its fleet-renewal efforts.
The company, which owns over 60 product tankers, said in a company report that the vintage vessels were sold for a total of $66m in “well-time” transactions.
There were talks that Maersk Product Tankers, which is majority-owned by Danish conglomerate AP Moller Holding, was seeking to sell more than 30 tankers earlier this year.
But TradeWinds reported the owner would focus on piecemeal marketing of tonnage rather than a massive sell-off.
Maersk Product Tankers has a stated policy of managing its fleet size “dynamically”, with all ships in principle on sale as long as the price is right.
