Greek shipowner IMS SA is looking to offload one of its oldest vessels.
Brokers said the 46,000-dwt tanker Risa (built 2000), which normally trades methanol between the Arabian Gulf and China, is en route to Ningbo in China, where it will be open for inspection towards the end of this month.
The tanker, which was constructed at South Korea's Daedong Shipbuilding, passed special survey in May last year.
European brokers said the ship could fetch $5m to $6m today.
2014 purchase
The Risa likely has not been a very fortunate investment for the Greek shipowner, which paid $10.5m for the tanker in October 2014, when it was named the Risanger.
The vessel was purchased with the sistership Ravnanger for the same price from a Norwegian limited partnership company that has Westfal-Larsen as its biggest investor.
The Ravnanger already has been sold to Transgas Shipping Lines of Peru and is trading as the Alejandro.
For Norway's Westfal-Larsen and the other investors, the duo was a disastrous investment, as they paid nearly $97m in total to Minerva Marine in 2006.
Piraeus-based IMS, which did not respond to a request for comment for this story, is listed with a fleet of six MR tankers that are trading with an average age of 17 years.
The company's oldest ship is the 47,000-dwt tanker Bering (built 1998), which was purchased from Sovcomflot (SCF Group) for $8.1m in August 2015 when it was named the Bering Sea.
In April last year, IMS bought its newest tanker when it picked up the 46,100-dwt Endeavour (built 2004) from Belgium’s Transpetrol for a reported $9.9m, before renaming it Bruno. The outfit bought at least three vessels in 2017.
It now has been five years since the Greek owner last sold a tanker for trading and four years since it conducted its last demolition sale.
