New York-listed DHT Holdings said it has sold a 14-year-old VLCC ahead of its third special survey and scheduled installation of a ballast water treatment system.
Svein Moxnes Harfjeld-led DHT said in a statement on Monday that it had fetched $37m for the 301,021-dwt DHT Edelweiss (built 2008), which does not have an exhaust gas scrubber installed.
The price is well under the estimated $41m price assigned to the tanker by VesselsValue, but the sale avoids the cost of putting DHT Edelweiss through the scheduled dry docking in the first quarter of 2023.
A market source did the math; a third special survey usually costs between $2.5m and $3m, a BWTS between $1.5m and $2m, and a scrubber between $3m and $3.5m.
“The sale will reduce the average age of the company’s fleet and improve its AER [annual efficiency ratio] and EEOI [Energy Efficiency Operational Indicator] metrics,” DHT said, referring to carbon emissions measures.
Norway-headquartered DHT expects to reap a gain of $6.8m after the repayment of outstanding bank debt of $12.2m.
The DHT Edelweiss was the only VLCC in the owner’s fleet that either does not already have a scrubber or does not have an installation scheduled.
The tanker owner said in its second-quarter earnings release that it was sending eight of its ships to the yard for scrubbers, with work beginning in the fourth quarter of this year and finishing up in the first quarter of 2021.
The installations were expected to cost $25m in total.
“The combination of lower cost and the current higher fuel spreads makes this a compelling investment,” the company said. “The investment will be funded with liquidity at hand hence no new debt will be issued.”
Following the DHT Edelweiss sale, DHT will own 23 VLCCs, 15 of which are outfitted with scrubbers.
The ships set to undergo scrubber installation are the 319,713-dwt DHT Colt (built 2018), 299,900-dwt DHT Jaguar (built 2015), 299,629-dwt DHT Leopard (built 2016), 299,629-dwt DHT Lion (built 2016), 299,629-dwt DHT Panther (built 2016), 299,900-dwt DHT Puma (built 2016), 319,713-dwt DHT Stallion (built 2018) and the 299,629-dwt DHT Tiger (built 2017).
All but seven of DHT’s ships trade in the spot market, although the 299,999-dwt DHT Ospery (built 2016) is set to begin a five-year charter this month at $37,000 per day with options to extend a year at $40,000 per day and another year at $45,000 per day.
