Chemnav Shipmanagement of Greece has reportedly sold its oldest tanker for a firm price despite weak freight earnings in the spot market.
The 105,000-dwt Delos Voyager (built 2003) was sold to a Middle East-based company for $12.5m, several European market sources said.
A representative of Chemnav did not respond to requests for comments.
The price tag suggests a nice profit for the Greek shipowner. In November 2017, Chemnav bought the Delos Voyager as Singapore Voyager from Japan’s Meiji Shipping for just $10.4m.
VesselsValue estimates the Namura-built tanker is worth $10.3m.
The Greek shipowner is listed with a fleet of seven tankers with an average age of 13 years, including three small vessels of 13,000 dwt each.
Paul Coronis-led Chemnav started buying larger tankers with the Singapore Voyager. In February this year, the company acquired the 159,000-dwt Godavari Spirit (built 2004) from Teekay Tankers for $23m.
This vessel, constructed by Hyundai Heavy Industries, has been renamed Rineia. VesselsValue estimates it worth less than $17m.
Decoupling of asset prices
With severe tonnage oversupply amid Opec+ production cuts, spot aframax earnings have struggled to stay above operating costs in recent months.
But secondhand prices for aged tankers have been resilient and are still far above scrap vales.
There has been persistent speculation that some buyers are soaking up tonnage for storage use or obscure trade, but firm details are not available.
Industry sources suggested that Greek shipowners have been among the most active sellers of older aframaxes. VesselsValue shows Minerva Marine has sold six ships built in the early 2000s since June and Eastern Mediterranean Maritime has offloaded three constructed in 1999 and 2000.
In addition, some owners have been getting rid of tonnage earlier caught in the geopolitical conflicts between Iran, the US and Venezuela.
The Delos Voyager was one the six tankers Washington briefly sanctioned earlier this year for transporting Venezuela oil.
Another of them, NGM Energy’s 300,000-dwt Voyager I (built 2003), was reported sold to Eminence Shipping for about $26m.
The vessels were removed from the sanctions list within weeks, and their values did not seem to have been affected based on the sale prices.
Separately, management companies linked to George Gialozoglou have offloaded the 40,800-dwt Pandi (built 1996) and the 8,100-dwt Wila (built 1997) in scrap sales.
The Pandi was of the four tankers transporting Iranian gasoline to Venezuela before its cargo was seized by the US during summer.
Following the seizure, Iranian military forces briefly boarded the Wila in the Middle East Gulf in a move seen as retaliation by some.
Harry Papachristou contributed to this article.
