Minerva Marine has sold its fourth aframax since June, aided by Vietnamese buyers eager to help the Greek company clear out some of its oldest vessels.
London brokers have reported the 105,700-dwt Minerva Maya (built 2002) as changing hands for $12.2m. The new owner is believed to be Vietnamese.
Minerva managers declined to comment, citing standard policy not to discuss commercial matters. However, the company is known to have circulated the vessel for sale in July.
One likely candidate to have bought the ship is Nhat Viet Transportation, clients of which acquired another Minerva aframax a few weeks ago — the 106,000-dwt Minerva Astra (renamed Explorer, built 2001), which reportedly fetched about $11.7m.
The Explorer was the first aframax ever to come under Nhat Viet Transport management. Officials at the Ho Chi Minh City-based company did not respond to a request for comment on whether they had acquired the Minerva Maya as well.
Nhat Viet is an offshoot of PV Trans, the shipping arm of state-owned petroleum giant PetroVietnam. Nhat Viet is known to own and charter-in dry bulk ships and gas carriers for a variety of Vietnamese owners.
Aframaxes are a rare sight in Vietnam, with just a handful of tankers in that size class managed out of the country. VesselsValue data shows eight such vessels in Vietnamese hands. The latest to join them was the 105,500-dwt Oklahoma (renamed Apollo, built 2006), which PetroVietnam acquired last year from Dorian (Hellas).
Summer sales
Before the sale of the Minerva Maya, Minerva offloaded three similar aframaxes over the summer. The sales fit a fleet-renewal pattern as it prepares to take delivery next year of two aframax newbuildings under construction at Daehan Shipbuilding.
The company’s sales campaign may not be over. The 105,800-dwt Minerva Concert (built 2003) was offered for sale in July and is understood to be still on the sale-and-purchase market.
As crude tanker freight rate indices collapse to their lowest levels in more than 20 years, big tanker owners see the time is ripe to part with their older aframaxes.
Alongside Minerva, Russia’s Sovcomflot found a willing buyer for the 106,500-dwt Petropavlovsk (built 2002) for about $10.2m. The United Arab Emirates' Khor Al Zubair Shipping, a part of Kasco Group, is said to be behind the purchase, brokers reported.
It is indicative of the dim outlook for tankers that the price fetched by the Petropavlovsk is a far cry from the $13.8m for which it was reported to have changed hands last December, in a deal that ultimately failed to materialise.
A senior Sovcomflot official said this month that he was being “realistic” about the tanker market outlook for the rest of 2020.
Sovcomflot has been linked to a string of other tanker sales this year, including the 159,200-dwt SCF Caucasus (built 2002) and the 47,900-dwt product tanker pair Hermitage Bridge and Anichkov Bridge (both built 2003).
None of these deals, however, have been confirmed so far.
Another company that sold one of its oldest aframaxes is Greece’s Delta Tankers, which parted with the 111,800-dwt Deep Blue (built 2005) in a little-noticed deal early in the summer.
The Hyundai Samho-built ship has been trading since August in the fleet of Indonesia’s Waruna Nusa Sentana.
It has been at anchor at Belawan in Sumatra and henceforth is expected to be plying domestic waters in local trade.
