A 55-year-old chemical tanker looks set to resume its final voyage to an Indian subcontinent recycling facility just over a year since it lost power in a storm and was nearly wrecked off Malta.
The 35,500-dwt, 1968-built Chem P, previously US Shipping Corp’s US-flag Chemical Pioneer, was seized by Maltese authorities immediately after it came metres from running onto rocks in March 2022. The arrest was made over a claim that the ship damaged an undersea cable.
Cash buyer Wirana, in its latest market report, said that last week the steam-powered ship was sold at auction for $440 per ldt, or just a few dollars short of $5.4m.
Other sources claim it was sold by its cash buyer owner to Turkish ship recyclers.
The Chem P is one of nine ships that have been reported sold for recycling over the past week by Best Oasis, Wirana and Star Asia Shipbroking.
The haul by ship recyclers in India and Bangladesh includes three containerships, along with a reefer, a ropax, an LPG carrier and a couple of offshore support vessels.
Indian recyclers picked up three of this tally, the largest being Wakisaka Kaiun’s 1,837-teu container ship MSC Nora II (built 1999), which was sold for Hong Kong Convention (HKC)-compliant green recycling for a reported $592 per ldt, or $6.2m.
Another container ship sold to Alang on a HKC-compliant basis was the 1,728-teu Leonard (ex-Leopard, built 1998), controlled by Element Shipmanagement of Greece. It was reportedly sold at $595 per ldt, or $4.6m.
Rounding up the sales to Alang was Vietnamese shipowner Nhat Viet Transport, which was said to have sold the 2,188-cbm LPG carrier Apollo Pacific (built 1988) for $650 per ldt, or $1.4m.
Bangladeshi recyclers, still hampered by issues pertaining to letters of credit, stuck with the smaller ships they have been acquiring for several months.
Reported sold to recycling facilities at Chattogram were the 1,104-teu container ship Meratus Malino (built 1995) belonging to Meratus Line of Indonesia; the 3,200-gt ropax Ho Fu Express (built 1987) of Taiwan’s Ho Fu Marine; and Hong Kong-based Hai Ling Shipping’s 4,000-dwt refrigerated fish carrier Yung Da Fa (built 1984).
The Meratus Malino was sold for $616 per ldt, or $3.3m. The Yung Da Fa went for $575 per ldt, or $1m. The Ho Fu Express was sold for the comparative bargain price of $250 per ldt, or $455,000, although brokers noted that it was sold on an as-is basis in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, while the other two deals were concluded on a delivered Chattogram basis.
Two elderly offshore vessels were also reported as being sold to cash buyers, although it remains unclear where their final voyages will end.
The Shenzhen Huawei Offshore 7,520-bhp anchor handling tug supply vessel Huaquan (built 1984) was said to have been sold on an as-is basis in Hong Kong for $394 per ldt, or $556,000. Halani Shipping of India’s 2,200-gt diver support vessel Germinal (built 1981) was auctioned by a Mumbai court for the equivalent of $575 per ldt, or $1m.
Cash buyers and brokers described the demolition markets on the subcontinent in much the same terms as they have for the past four months, with lacklustre buying interest from recyclers that are facing falling steel plate prices along with currency and letters of credit issues, which show no signs of changing in the near future.
