Greece’s Avin International has made two moves in the secondhand market within a few weeks to replace an ageing product tanker with a much younger vessel.
Athens-based brokers have identified the Vardinoyiannis-controlled company as buyers of the 47,200-dwt Ariake Maru (built 2009) for about $13.6m.
This comes just after other brokers reported last month that Avin sold the 47,200-dwt Vera Cruz (built 1999) to Qatari interests for $6.2m.
Avin had circulated that vessel for sale as early as July last year.
Both ships were built in Japan. The Ariake Maru was constructed at Shin Kurushima Dockyard, while the Vera Cruz was built at Onomichi Shipbuilding.
Managers at Avin did not immediately respond to a request to comment on the deals.
The company, however, has conducted a string of such transactions over the past two years.
The Vera Cruz would be the 10th ship built before 2000 that Avin has shed in that period.
Including the Vera Cruz, the average age of the ships Avin sold is 23 years in deals that raised the company estimated proceeds of more than $70m.
Interestingly, the Vera Cruz would be the first ship in that group to be sold for further trading rather than for demolition.
Avin has mirrored these sales with a roughly equal amount of purchases on the second-hand market.
Since late 2016, the company has spent more than $190m to purchase 13 crude and product tankers with an average age of about 13 years. That includes the reported buy of the Ariake Maru.
