Sea Hawk Maritime has become the latest Greek company to expand into tankers, probably betting on a sector recovery that has so far proved elusive.
Available records show that Sea Hawk has bought its first oil carrier since the Kourtesis family established the Athens outfit in 2013.
Sea Hawk had so far been known as an operator of open-hatch cargo ships and handysize bulkers. This month, however, Equasis shows it as the new manager of the 40,000-dwt product tanker Hafnia Hope (built 2007).
Brokers reported it as sold by Hafnia to unidentified interests early last month for between $9m and $9.5m.
Managers at Sea Hawk Maritime declined to comment.
The Saiki-built Hafnia Hope, however, is already listed as trading in the company's fleet under its new name, Aida, joining Sea Hawk's two existing bulkers — the 24,200-dwt Allegra and 23,500-dwt Symphony (both built 1995).
Considering the advanced age of the two Japanese-built bulkers, it looks as though the company has identified MR or handysize tankers as its next play.
This would be in line with the traditional Greek countercyclical business strategy.
Object of desire
Several Hellenic companies debuted in or returned to tanker markets last year, including Lavinia, Aims Shipping and Westport Tankers. US-listed Castor Maritime alone bought nine tankers, maybe even 10.
Sea Hawk's acquisition of the Hafnia ship has similar traits to some of these deals.
First of all, it concerns an MR, which was Greek tanker buyers' favourite object of desire last year. Fifty of the 114 oil carriers that Greeks are known or believed to have picked up in the secondhand market in 2021 were MR1 and MR2 units, according to the latest TradeWinds data.
One reason for the popularity of such smaller tankers is their versatility and flexibility. Another is that companies newly entering the market, or lacking recent experience of it, have plenty of established third-party ship managers to choose from.
Sea Hawk opted to leave its new acquisition in the same Hafnia pool in which it had been trading before. Hafnia continues to list the vessel as part of its handysize pool.
"That shows that the new owner is satisfied with the vessel's performance with us," Hafnia executive advisor Anders Engholm told TradeWinds.
