Formosa Plastics Marine Corp is downsizing its fleet and is selling ships that it “can do without or are not suitable” for the company.
The Taiwanese shipowner, a shipping arm of Formosa Plastics Group, is reported to have sold the STX Dalian-built 105,000-dwt FPMC B 102 (built 2011) for $17m.
An unnamed Asian buyer is said to have bought the scrubber-fitted mini-capesize bulk carrier.
Shipping sources following Formosa Plastics said the sale of the FPMC B 102 is part of the company’s fleet reduction programme.
“We understand FPMC B 102 is no longer a modern vessel and Formosa Plastics is not trading the bulk carrier to the optimum,” said one shipping source. “It can do without the ship.”
Other shipping sources said Formosa Plastics was ready to sell its vessels and replace them with chartered ones.
“The current management team is not after a big fleet and prefers to keep vessels that it can optimise,” said the shipping source.
The FPMC B 105 is part of a three-ship order that Formosa Plastics inked in 2007 at the collapsed STX Dalian Shipbuilding at a reported price of slightly more than $63m each.
It had ordered the trio then as part of its strategy to modernise its fleet and booked the ship type based on the expansion of the Panama Canal.
But the majority of Formosa Plastics’ bulker fleet focuses on cargo between Australia and Taiwan.
VesselsValue shows Formosa Plastics will be left with only one mini-capesize ship — the 105,000-dwt FPMC B 104 (built 2011) following the sale.
In May 2023, the company sold the sister ship FPMC B 103 (built 2011) for $24.85m.
Indonesia’s Landseadoor International Shipping bought the bulk carrier and renamed it Sea Rose.
VesselsValue shows Formosa Plastics also sold two other scrubber-fitted vessels — one VLCC and one MR tanker last year.
It sold the Japanese-built, 298,000-dwt FPMC C Honor (built 2008) and the 45,700-dwt Formosa Thirteen (built 2005).
Dubai-based Green Earth Petroleum is listed as the buyer of the large crude oil tanker it acquired for $55m. It has been renamed the VLCC Duplic Dynamic.
As for the Shin Kurushina-built product carrier, the tanker was sold for $18m and has been renamed Kun Peng. The ship is registered under a Hong Kong company called Jin Cheng Soo Shipping.
Formosa Plastics’ website shows it is left with a fleet of 43 vessels after the sale of the mini-capesize.
The fleet is made up of 16 bulk carriers, 25 tankers, one LPG carrier and one feeder container ship.
