The joint liquidators of Singapore's Xihe Holdings have found buyers for three of the troubled tanker owner's few remaining MR product tankers.

The sales see Xihe's tanker fleet reduced to 35 vessels from the 117 units of various types that the company owned at the time it — and affiliated operator Ocean Tankers — ran into trouble early last year.

Brokers report that two of the MR tankers will be heading to new owners, while a third has been sold for recycling.

Widely reported as being sold for further trading are the 50,300-dwt MR2 product tankers Ocean Globe (built 2007) and Ocean Cosmos (built 2008).

The Ocean Globe was said to have gone for $10m while the slightly younger Ocean Cosmos was sold for $10.7m.

Both were sold via tender sales organised by the joint liquidators.

Sale-and-purchase brokers in Singapore said the prices paid were in line with market levels for high-spec, South Korean-built MR2 tankers.

Both were built for Xihe at SLS Shipbuilding, with operator Ocean Tankers frequently touting them as having been designed from a trader's perspective with high capacity pumps and superior tank coatings.

The buyers have yet to be identified.

Recycling deal

Xihe's MR1 product tanker Ocean Winner was acquired as British Endeavour from BP Shipping in 2007. Photo: Jo Turner/Creative Commons

Although Xihe's purpose-built MR2's have attracted trading buyers despite a lacklustre product market, a smaller MR1 tanker bought secondhand has been sold for recycling.

The 37,300-dwt Ocean Winner (built 2002) looks set to join the growing number of product tankers being permanently removed from the market.

VesselsValue lists the Ocean Winner as having been sold on an "as is" basis in Malaysia for $595 per ldt, or $5.2m.

Built by Hyundai Mipo for operation by BP Shipping, the vessel was sold to Xihe in 2007.

UK shipbroker Simpson Spence Young reported that product tanker recycling activity this year has been at its highest since 2010, with 51 clean tankers of 2.4m dwt recycled to the end of October.

Poten & Partners said on Monday that it had recorded the demolition of 25 MRs so far this year, the highest number in more than 10 years.

Prime assets sold

Prolific selling on the part of Xihe's joint liquidators, has seen most of the company's prime assets dispersed to new owners across the globe.

Apart from a couple of VLCCs and a handful of MR2s, the remaining unsold tanker assets are small regional and bunker tankers.

A handful of these tankers have been arrested by creditors in Singapore and are expected to be put on the judicial auction block soon.

The largest under arrest is the 318,600-dwt crude carrier Wu Yi San (built 2012), which was seized at the end of September by Credit Agricole Asia Shipfinance, one of Xihe's larger creditors.

A quartet of 12,000-dwt product tankers was arrested around the same time by Bank of America.

Other unsold vessel assets include harbour tugs, launches, and a couple of anchor-handling tug supply units.

The joint liquidators do not comment on the disposal of Xihe's assets.