A 2001-built aframax tanker with a questionable past has finally turned up at the shipbreaking beach at Chattogram, to become the fourth of its type to be recycled this year.
The arrival of Marshall Islands-registered Evita Maritime’s 112,100-dwt Prada in Bangladesh last week under the shortened name Rada came as compilers of weekly demolition reports were unable to list a single ship as being sold for recycling over the past week.
Tradewinds first reported the recycling sale of the Prada in late August.
At the time, the ageing tanker had a market value of $26m as a trading vessel, according to VesselsValue.
Although not officially sanctioned by US authorities, brokers said its appearance on pressure group United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI)’s list of ships allegedly engaged in carrying sanctioned Iranian crude made it untouchable for any mainstream shipowner.
Even most cash buyers gave the ship a wide berth. Its sale was on an as-is/where-is basis in Khor Fakkan for $480 per ldt, or $9m in total, described as a discount to the market price.
Today, that discounted price appears better than current pricing levels of between $460 and $470 per ldt for tankers across the Indian subcontinent.
VesselsValue lists the Prada as the fourth aframax tanker to be sold for recycling this year.
Built as the Overseas Josefa Camejo for Overseas Shipholding Group, it enjoyed a stable 17 years under OSG/International Seaways ownership.
Its existence after that can best be described as nomadic.
During the intervening six years, it has been owned by several single-ship entities that have bestowed upon it the names Phaedra Bright 1, Proud Nadia, Karma and Prada.
Under these names, it has flown the flags of Panama, Cameroon and Eswatini, while being operated by at least three small and hitherto unknown ship managers in India and the Middle East that seemingly popped up out of nowhere to manage the ship, and then faded back into obscurity when it moved on to new managers.
The above traits are all hallmarks of tankers that form the dark fleet, operating in the shadows of the shipping lanes while moving US-sanctioned oil cargos.
The vessel arrived in the Khor Fakkan anchorage in the United Arab Emirates in March this year, by which time the Eswatini flag was flying from its stern. Allegations made by UANI made it impossible to trade.
In August, the UAE banned Eswatini-flagged vessels not classed by an International Association of Classification Societies member from calling at its ports, in an effort to crack down on the dark fleet that operates outside mainstream shipping.
The Eswatini government denied having anything to do with the ship.
By this time, the International Labour Organization had listed the Prada as abandoned by its owner with its crew stranded on board and owed several months of wages.
The other three aframaxes sold for recycling this year, the 107,200-dwt Indu, 106,500-dwt Serano II and Bradley (all built 1999), all had similar peripatetic afterlives once sold by their mainstream owners.
