Interest among bargain-hunting Asian buyers has allowed several Greek owners to dispose of some of their oldest tankers as part of bold fleet-renewal moves.
The deals come despite continuing low freight rates for much of the tanker sector.
There is little clarity over the identities of the buyers, many of whom are emerging as represented by recently established management companies that are based in India or China.
Arcadia Shipmanagement's recent sale offers an example. The Angelopoulos family company disposed of its oldest tanker, the 106,000-dwt aframax Aegean Freedom (built 2003), reportedly for about $10.8m.
The relatively firm price probably reflects the fact that the Hyundai Heavy Industries-built ship is not due for special survey or dry-docking before 2023.
Several brokers reported Greece’s Spring Marine as the buyer. However, the Aegean Freedom has emerged as the Brava Lake under the management of Sygnius Ship Management.
Kolkata-based Sygnius was set up last year and is listed with just one other ship — the 164,600-dwt Ridgebury Alina (renamed Brenda Eagle, built 2001), which Ridgebury Tankers reportedly sold in December to an unnamed Middle Eastern firm for about $13.5m.
In a more recent deal, Lou Kollakis-led Chartworld Shipping is said to have offloaded its two oldest tankers, the 114,800-dwt Star Osprey and Star Swift (both built 2003), to Vietnam's FGAS Petrol for a total of $24m. These would be FGAS Petrol's first aframaxes.
Cut-off year 2002
The fleet-renewal motive emerges most vividly in the case of major owner Thenamaris, which reportedly agreed to sell one of its oldest tankers, the 164,200-dwt suezmax Searacer (built 2002).
If confirmed, this deal would follow the sale of two other tankers of the same age that Thenamaris recently offloaded to Asian buyers.
The first was the 149,900-dwt Seaprince (renamed Green Sea, built 2002), which is listed with Shunyuan Shipmanagement, a new, single-ship management company based in China.
The second was the 105,500-dwt aframax Saint Nicholas (renamed Saint Nicholai, built 2002), which has been flying the flag of Djibouti since December and is listed with Peridot Ship Management — a little-known company based in Mumbai.
Thenamaris owns about 60 tankers, none built before 2002. Earlier this month, TradeWinds reported the company had ordered up to three MR tankers at South Korea's Hyundai Mipo Dockyard.
Amazon tankers gone
Sun Enterprises has followed a similar pattern. In late February, the S Livanos company sold its oldest tanker, the 72,900-dwt panamax tanker Amazon Explorer (built 2002), for about $9m.
The ship is now trading as Yong Tai under the management of Yong Tai Shipping, a Hong Kong-based outfit without any previous track record or known contact details.
Some brokers have linked Seven Islands Shipping to the deal but the Indian company does not yet feature the vessel on its website.
In May, Sun Enterprises sold a sistership of the Amazon Explorer, the 72,900-dwt Amazon Gladiator (renamed Gladiator, built 2001), to Spain’s Peninsula Petroleum.
These two sales made space for one VLCC and three MR2 newbuildings, which the company has taken delivery of this year. Another three newbuildings, one MR2 and two aframaxes, are on course for completion this year.
Vintage sales before ammonia newbuilding
Avin International is renewing its fleet with secondhand ships that are just slightly younger than the ones it has sold.
After offloading a trio of 20-year-old suezmaxes in September, the Vardinoyiannis-family company has emerged this month as the new owner of the 110,800-dwt Esteem Brilliance (built 2006) — a vessel reported sold in January this year by Meiji Shipping for about $13m.
Avin may have gone even further in its fleet renewal with the purchase this month of the 38,400-dwt tanker Nordic Pia (built 2006) from Nordic Shipholding for about $7.2m. Avin has no other MR1 units in its fleet of about 30 tankers.
Secondhand buys apart, Avin has also jumped on the Greek tanker newbuilding wagon. In January, it ordered what could be the world’s first “ammonia-ready” tanker — a 156,500-dwt suezmax from New Times Shipbuilding.
Earlier in the same month, it took delivery of a more conventional suezmax newbuilding from Hyundai Heavy Industry’s Ulsan yard — the 158,000-dwt Kriti Hero (built 2021), which it locked into a charter with Trafigura.
