As many as seven aframaxes or LR2s have changed hands in secondhand deals lately, underscoring the continuing importance and popularity these workhorses of the seaborne oil trade still enjoy.
One transaction stands head and shoulders above the rest.
Several market sources have told TradeWinds that Idan Ofer’s Eastern Pacific Shipping is spending at least $66m on the 108,400-dwt Southern Glory (built 2019) — a modern eco vessel that is fitted with a scrubber unit and a ballast water treatment system (BWTS).
This vessel is owned by Japan’s Nissen Kaiun, which contracted it as a newbuilding in the summer of 2015 at Tsuneishi Shipbuilding’s Fukuyama yard for around $49m.
Another owner of such a modern aframax may be close to a similarly lucrative sale. US-based brokers are reporting that Greece’s Pleiades Shipping Agents is offloading its 114,500-dwt aframax Sperchios (built 2018).
Just like the Southern Glory, the Sperchios is equipped with both a scrubber and a BWTS. The Athens-based owner contracted the ship at Namura Shipbuilding in the summer of 2015, at a price that was certainly below the $68m that brokers are reporting it as sold for now.
Pleiades managers did not respond to a request for comment.
The Southern Glory and the Sperchios are the most modern of the aframax vessels believed to be changing hands this week. Their age and specifications are such that Clarksons estimates they have a “C” rating on the International Maritime Organization’s Carbon Intensity Indicator scale.
Good, old workhorses
Not that buyers are hesitating to pounce on “D”-rated vessels.
Greece’s NGM Energy, for instance, has found willing buyers for the 113,000-dwt Ace (built 2008). The Ace — an aframax built at New Times Shipbuilding Co with its last known special survey passed in July 2018 and its BWTS installation pending — fetched between $38m and $40m.
Unadjusted for inflation, that is about as much as the Moundreas family company spent to acquire it almost eight years ago.
Even vessels older than the Ace are finding new homes. The 107,100-dwt Songa Coral (built 2005) has already done so and is currently trading as Makalu in the fleet of a Seychelles-registered owner.
Brokers believe the ship’s actual buyers are based in the United Arab Emirates and, since March, Clarksons has listed the vessel as owned by a Moldova-based entity called OST Shipmanagement.
Despite its age, the Songa Coral is believed to have changed hands for $35m, most probably on account of its construction by Japan’s Koyo Dockyard and the fact that its previous owner — the Songa Group — equipped it with both a BWTS and a scrubber unit.
This was the biggest and oldest tanker in the private fleet of Arne Blystad. Fortunately for the Norwegian owner, a deal to sell the Songa Coral at a much lower $25m never materialised last summer.
A sister ship to the Songa Coral has been reported sold as well. US brokers said on 19 May that clients of Hellenic Tankers were offloading the 107,100-dwt Aframax Riviera (built 2005).
This used to be the Temasek River, which clients of Hellenic Tankers acquired 11 years ago for $23.25m. Now the company is reportedly flipping the ship to UAE-based buyers for between $35m and $37m. Interestingly, Clarksons assigns a “C” rating on the ship.
Hellenic Tankers owner Andreas Hadjiyiannis is a renowned asset player, but so is Union Maritime. The London-based company is now polishing its deal-making credentials with the $37m sale of the 108,900-dwt epoxy-coated LR2 Ampleforth (built 2008).
Union Maritime, which has been selling other secondhand ships lately to help fund a newbuilding push, acquired the Chinese-built Ampleforth barely three years ago for just $15.3m from the fleet sale of bankrupt Xihe Holdings.
The Ampleforth may not be the only tanker Union Maritime is disposing of. According to brokers, the smaller, 13,200-dwt chemical tanker Tarrant (built 2008) has been sold as well.
Last but not least, US brokers report Greece’s Sea World Management & Trading is selling the 106,100-dwt Sea Hazel (built 2004) for about $30m.
This is an aframax built at Tsuneishi Shipbuilding’s Tadotsu yard and Clarksons said it has not been equipped with a BWTS yet.
The Sea Hazel used to trade as the Britsh Hazel with BP Shipping. Vasileios Laliotis-led Sea World has been managing the ship since early 2014 on terms unknown. Company managers did not respond to a request for comment.
