Greek owner Velos Tankers has reportedly acquired an MR product tanker from one of Japan's largest shipowners.
Brokers said Shoei Kisen — ultimately controlled by the Higaki family – recently sold the 48,000-dwt Bright Fortune (built 2010) to Velos for $13.5m.
Launched by Paschalis Diamantides in 2019, Velos owns and manages a handful of LR1 and MR tankers.
Shoei Kisen, which generally prefers period charters, previously deployed the ship in Norden’s Norient Product Pool.
The sale was reported days after Japanese-owned, Singapore-based Blue Wake Shipping was said to have sold the 47,600-dwt Carina (built 2010) to unnamed Indian interests for $15m.
The seller is affiliated to Daishin Technos, the Japanese equipment maker best known for its involvement in the firefighting, environmental control and gas-detecting sectors.
The MR was fixed to Italian operator d’Amico International Shipping on a period charter from 2013 to June 2020.
Velos declined to comment, while Shoei Kisen and Blue Wake did not reply to emails from TradeWinds.
Weak prices
The ships were constructed by Iwagi Zosen, a group yard of Higaki-owned Imabari Shipbuilding, which is the parent company of Shoei Kisen.
The Carina was believed to have fetched a better price because it recently passed a special survey and is installed with a ballast-water treatment system.
But both were sold at low price levels. Clarksons Research estimates a 10-year-old, 47,000-dwt MR tanker is worth $18.5m.
“The prices were, well, pretty low,” a London-based broker said. “Those are pump room-type ships so theoretically less flexible.”
Most analysts expect MR earnings to be weak in the coming months, with a slow, uneven recovery in oil demand during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Fearnley Securities has forecast spot MR earnings to average $13,000 per day in the second quarter, down from $15,700 per day between January and March.
“When it comes to cargo demand, oil products were hit in different ways by the crisis,” Bimco chief shipping analyst Peter Sand said. “While some are already recovering, others have yet to see any meaningful upturn.
“Refineries are also having a hard time, as new lockdowns in Europe and global travel restrictions put a further recovery in global oil demand on hold.”
The industry group predicts the product tanker fleet will grow by 2.5% this year, marginally higher than 2.4% in 2020.
