Norwegian shipowner Knutsen OAS Shipping has sold a small product tanker to Algoma Central of Canada.
Knutsen director Jon Einar Dalsvag confirmed the sale of the 16,500-dwt Louise Knutsen (built 2010), which has reportedly gone for between $15m and $16m. It has already been renamed Algoterra.
“This is not core business for us,” Dalsvag said of the product tanker sector.
VesselsValue and Maritime Strategies International value a vessel of the Louise Knutsen’s characteristics at $10.6m to $15m. Dalsvag suggested that the VesselsValue figure at the bottom end of that range is a very low estimate for the ship.
Charters to Total
The company ordered the Louise Knutsen and three sisterships at China’s Jiangnan Shipyard for between $32m and $34m each. The three other ships still have a couple of years left of charters to Total and will most likely be kept for the time being.
Knutsen has been backing out of product and chemical tankers for years. Last year, it sold its last tanker built before 2000. The 19,100-dwt Kristin Knutsen (built 1998) went for $6.2m to Seacon Shipping of China.
It scaled down its products/chemical tanker business dramatically from 2010 to 2013, selling 10 ships that were built between 1989 and 2010.
Knutsen is a part owner of Knutsen NYK Offshore Tankers, a 50:50 joint venture with NYK Line of Japan. The company is controlled by the Seglem family, which also operates LNG carriers owned jointly with Norway’s Umoe group and NYK.
