DSD Shipping of Norway is selling its oldest vessel, a 15-year-old MR product tanker, as it renews its fleet.
The Stavanger-based shipowner has sold the 45,780-dwt Stavanger Breeze (built 2004) for $8.65m, according to US brokers.
The price for the STX Offshore & Shipbuilding-built ship is at the low end of valuation estimates despite firm freight rates. The ship is due for special survey in May.
VesselsValue says a tanker of the Stavanger Breeze’s characteristics is worth $9.7m, while Maritime Strategies International estimates its value at between $8.4m and $10.1m.
Chief executive Oddvar Hausken confirmed that DSD is in a sales process involving the tanker, but insisted that no deal had been concluded.
He also confirmed that the sale is part of a fleet renewal programme.
DSD purchased the tanker from Socatra in 2010, when it was the Nizon, for $30m. The deal included a two-year bareboat charter back to the seller at $10,000 per day.
Meling partnership
DSD also owns four aframaxes built between 2007 and 2009 and two intermediate tankers owned on a 50/50 basis with compatriot OH Meling. Three of the aframaxes are operating in Teekay Tankers’ aframax pool.
The Stavanger Breeze is the only MR tanker in the DSD fleet that is on the water. The company has ordered six MRs at Hyundai Vinashin Shipyard in Vietnam for delivery in 2019 and 2020 for $32m each. Two of the ships have been sold on to Belgium’s Transpetrol for $34m each.
Hausken said DSD does not have co-investors in the newbuilding programme.
The company suffered huge losses in 2011 and 2012 as a consequence of losing long-term charters with Japanese owner Sanko Steamship.
DSD is a subsidiary of privately owned diversified Det Stavangerske Dampskibsselskab. The company, formed in 1855, is controlled by Yuhong Jin Hermansen, widow of the late shipowner Folke Hermansen.
