John Angelicoussis has sold the last of his tankers built before the turn of the century.
His Maran Tankers has offloaded the 159,700-dwt Maran Capella (built 1998) at a price market sources pegged at $11.5m.
While some brokers had suggested the tanker would go for scrap, it is understood the vessel has been sold to a storage buyer, which is reflected in the premium pricing.
VesselsValue estimates the Maran Capella would be worth about $10.2m if it was sold in the demolition market.
Maran has more than 50 VLCCs and suezmaxes in the water alongside a pair of aframaxes.
Angelicoussis has replacement ships lined up with four suezmaxes in the Maran orderbook for delivery in 2020.
IMO 2020 rules will prompt refineries to increase their crude runs and are therefore boosting floating storage demand, especially from the second half of this year onwards in Asia, analysts have recently predicted.
Thailand’s Nathalin alone has been linked to three VLCC purchases – apparently all for the purpose of storage.
Suezmax storage deals, by contrast, have been much rarer.
In January, some brokers reported that Greece’s Atlas Maritime sold the 148,400-dwt Marshal Z (built 1996) in such a deal, at an undisclosed price.
Online reference sources, however, show the ship remains in the Greek company’s fleet.
Until April 2018, it had been trading as Apollo with Athens-based peer Dynacom Tankers.
