Norwegian bulker owner Spar Shipping is set to dispose of more of its oldest ships.
Shipbrokers say the company has sold the Chengxi-built, 53,000-dwt Spar Draco (built 2006) to an undisclosed buyer for a firm price of $13.5m.
Price assessment firm VesselsValue estimates the bulker is worth about $12m. Spar chief executive Jarle Ellefsen declined to comment.
Several brokers suggest the Spar Draco will be followed by further sales from the company's fleet of supramax and ultramax vessels.
Fast mover
The Spar Draco is one of the oldest ships in the fleet. Historically, the company has moved quite fast on fleet-renewal deals, suggesting more sales could be underway.
Spar traces its roots back to 1962, when Helge Eide Knudsen established Spar Kjop. Initially the shipping division invested in limited partnership deals, but Spar now concentrates on outright ownership.
The fleet currently consists of six ultramaxes and 18 supramax bulkers with an average age of 11 years.
Knudsen died in 2015 at the age of 82 and the company was passed to his sons, Tom and Ivan Eide Knudsen.
In the mid 1990s, Spar sold all of its 1990s-built bulkers, a number of them for demolition.
The year 2013 was another milestone for Spar when it ordered six ultramax bulkers from Hantong Shipyard, reportedly for $24m to $25m each. The these are today likely to be worth about $28m.
