Eight years after delivery, Awilco and TRF have reportedly sold a VLCC for a touch higher than its newbuilding price.
Brokers are reporting the 300,000-dwt Eco Seas (built 2016) was sold to unnamed buyers for $98.5m, just over the $97m price South Korea’s Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering charged to build it, according to VesselsValue.
“She is the only remaining [ship] of a quartet of sisters owned jointly by Awilco and TRF, incidentally the sales reported price is slightly higher than the newbuilding price back then, but she has since been retrofitted with a scrubber,” Cleaves broker Einar Straume wrote in the company’s weekly note.
Wilhelmsen subsidiary Awilco declined to comment on the sale.
The ship’s registered owner is Eco Seas AS, which shares an Oslo address with Awilco, which is also listed in shipping database Equasis as its commercial manager.
In October, Oslo-based TRF was reportedly responsible for entering the Eco Seas into the Tankers International pool.
The purported $98.5m share price is a slight premium to VesselsValue’s $97.1m valuation.
It is another indication of a tanker sale-and-purchase market that continues running hot, with VLCC newbuilding prices hitting highs not seen in more than 15 years.
Secondhand ships continue to fetch high prices, as well, with Clarksons estimating a five-year-old VLCC to be worth $111m, a rise of 11% over the last three months and higher than the 2023 average of $105m.
A 10-year-old VLCC is going for $84m, the shipbroking giant said, while a 15-year-old ship is $58m.
All are improvements over their 2023 averages.
The strength is also reflected in prices for smaller tankers, where Clarksons said five-year-old suezmaxes and aframaxes would both fetch $83m.
Cleaves and Straume compared the Eco Seas sale to TRF selling the 297,700-dwt TRF Horten (built 2018) earlier in February for $102m, reportedly to Tsakos Energy Navigation.
The sale came at a slight discount to valuations but was likely impacted by its construction at the Philippines’ now-defunct Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction Philippines facility in Subic Bay, as ships from that yard typically carry a discount.
Awilco had no ownership stake in that ship.
