Denmark’s Torm has boosted its liquidity by around $76.5m by selling additional older tankers, brokers say.
The Copenhagen and Nasdaq-listed owner revealed in its third-quarter report that six product carriers had been offloaded since July.
The Copenhagen-listed owner said one MR and two LR1s were sold in the period, and then an LR2 and two more MRs were disposed of after 30 September.
Three have previously been reported, but European brokers have identified the two LR1s and the LR2.
The 75,000-dwt Torm Estrid and Torm Ismini (both built 2004) have gone for $20m or $20.5m each.
The Torm Ismini is assessed by VesselsValue as worth $22m, up from $19m a year ago.
The ship has been renamed Interstellar under unknown Chinese control, with the single-shipowning entity named Jing Hui International of the Marshall Islands.
The Torm Estrid is now the New Fusion under Chinese control.
The ship is worth $20.7m, against $17.5m a year ago.
The listed owner is Thriving Times International of the UK.
The 109,000-dwt Torm Marina (built 2007), fitted with a scrubber, is said to have fetched $36.5m meanwhile.
This is a firm price against a valuation of $34.3m, up from $32.25m a year ago.
‘Very active player’
All three tankers have been owned by Torm since delivery.
Torm does not comment on individual sale-and-purchase transactions.
Norwegian shipbroker Cleaves said the owner has been a “very active player” in the secondhand market.
Torm has bought 22 ships this year, including last week’s big announcement of a $399m swoop for eight LR2s built between 2010 and 2012 from the fleet of Kristian Gerhard Jebsen.
The company also confirmed the purchase of four MR eco product vessels built in 2015 and 2016 for $75m and 2.68m of its shares.
These are the 50,000-dwt Essie C, Jane S, Nancy P (all built 2015) and Marie S (built 2016), acquired from US owner Alterna Capital. The deal was first reported in TradeWinds last month.
All this activity brings the total fleet to 93 tankers.
Older candidates attracting interest
Eva Tzima, head of research at Greece’s Seaborne Shipbrokers, said several older tanker sales candidates that had been marketed for a relatively long period had found buyers in the last few days.
Some of these, particularly of aframax size, have attained levels above the original asking prices.
This “shouldn’t come as a surprise given the fact that the size continues to greatly outperform the rest of the market”, Tzima added.
“The fast-approaching winter and the very strong numbers posted on the freight front are at the same time reviving appetite for modern tonnage as well,” the analyst said.
The focus remains on MR ships up to aframax/LR2 units.
Buyers seem ready to pay the premiums required, with cash-rich and “A-list” owners in the market for such ships, Tzima argues.
