Eastern Pacific Shipping is said to have secured a “good price” on the sale of two older vessels as it gets set to take delivery of about 120 newbuildings over the next four years.
The Idan Ofer-led company is said to have sold an aframax tanker and one midsize gas carrier, bringing the tally of vessels sold this year to 11.
Eastern Pacific is said to have sold the Sumitomo-built 105,200-dwt crude carrier Serene Sea (built 2009) and HD Hyundai Mipo-built 37,000-cbm LPG carrier Nova Scotia (built 2016) under its fleet renewal programme.
No details of the deal have been disclosed.
An Eastern Pacific executive declined to comment on the company’s activity.
One gas expert said Eastern Pacific had fetched a high price of $58m for the Nova Scotia.
“This is a plain midsize LPG ship with no extras … so it’s a good price for the seller,” the gas expert added.
One broker said: “It would only sell them [the vessels] if the price is right.”
Eastern Pacific is believed to have paid between $51m and $52m when it ordered the vessel — part of a four-ship deal at Hyundai Mipo in 2014.
Italy’s Carbofin is said to have bought the Nova Scotia, which is time chartered out to Petrobras for five years.
The charter rate is not disclosed but gas sources believe the MGC is a replacement vessel for Carbofin’s older ship, the 38,000-cbm Luigi Lagrange (built 2006), which was fixed to the Brazilian giant energy.
Vietnam’s PV Trans — the shipping arm of state-owned oil major PetroVietnam — was named as the buyer of the Eastern Pacific aframax tanker Serene Sea for $35.5m.
VesselsValue shows the Serene Sea would be the third secondhand aframax tanker PV Trans has bought this year. The earlier two tankers were the 115,000-dwt Pacific Jewels and Pacific Treasures (both built 2016).
But brokers said the duo were acquired by privately-owned Asia Pacific Shipping (ASP), which bought them for $68.5m each.
ASP has already taken delivery of the Pacific Treasures and renamed it ASP Treasures.
According to VesselsValue, the Serene Sea is the second aframax tanker that Eastern Pacific has offloaded this year.
In January, it sold the 105,900-dwt Koro Sea (renamed Pacific 01, built 2008) to Pacific Logistic & Maritime of Vietnam for $39m.
The other nine vessels that it sold include stainless steel chemical tankers.
The sales included the 20,000-dwt Ivory Ray (built 2011), the 48,000-dwt MR tanker Pacific Diamond (built 2010), the 177,000-dwt capesize bulker Mount Carmel (built 2007) and the 7,050-ceu car carrier CMA CGM Daytona (built 2024).
