Singapore-based Elite Tankship has fixed a pair of modern LR2 vessels on long-term charters.
The operator of clean and crude carriers has contracted a pair of 2019-built, scrubber-fitted ships that will be trading as PIS Kerinci and PIS Rinjani after their delivery in October and November, according to a social media post.
Elite, led by chief executive Mangish Kakodkar, did not disclose any other details about the fixture and refrained from revealing the two ships’ current identities.
However, their new names identify them as owned by Pertamina International Shipping.
TradeWinds understands the ships are the 109,000-dwt STI Lily and Alkinoos (both built 2019) — two ships that Pertamina agreed to buy last month from Scorpio Tankers and Capital Maritime & Trading, respectively, for between $73.5m and $74m each.
TradeWinds reported on 18 October that Elite took the STI Lily from Pertamina for three years at about $40,000 daily.
Other market sources are telling TradeWinds now that the same chartering terms apply to the Alkinoos.
Described by a market source as “a very strong rate”, the long-term fixtures are probably what encouraged Pertamina to buy the ships in the first place, at the elevated price.
“At that [charter] rate, they will be generating $10m to $11m in cash flow per year,” a source told TradeWinds last week.
Kakodkar founded Elite Tankship in late 2019 in partnership with Essential Capital, a Singapore-based investment company owned by oil trading veteran Hon Kim Weng.
Adopting an asset-light business model, Elite takes in tankers on long-term charters and trades them mainly in the spot market.
According to its website, its fleet of chartered LR2 product tankers currently comprises Arab Maritime Petroleum Co’s 112,100-dwt Sea Jewel (built 2013) and SPDB Financial Leasing’s 115,400-dwt Jill Glory (built 2023).
Elite’s website features another pair of Pertamina ships — the 301,800-dwt VLCC Pertamina Prime (built 2021) and the 46,000-dwt PIS Polaris (built 2010).
