Koch Supply & Trading has reportedly forged a $30.7m deal for an Enesel product tanker that bolsters broker assessments showing that rates for scrubber-fitted LR2s are at a two-year high in the period charter market.
The company, a subsidiary of US conglomerate Koch Industries, has chartered the 115,000-dwt Sparto (built 2020) for three years at $28,000 per day, according to a report by UK-based Seasure Shipbroking. The LR2, which is owned by Greece’s Enesel, is an eco tanker fitted with a scrubber.
Koch and Enesel did not respond to TradeWinds’ request for confirmation of the reported charter deal.
The charter rate attributed to the deal is in line with Clarksons estimates showing that an eco, scrubber-fitted LR2 of the Sparto’s size should earn $28,250 per day in a three-year charter.
That is a one-month jump of 10.8%, and it marks the highest level since May of 2020.
The charter looks lucrative for Enesel, as Maritime Strategies International estimates that the Sparto has operating costs of around $8.5m.
The last-reported three-year charter of an LR2 was BP’s deal for Halkidon Shipping’s 115,000-dwt Kleon (built 2016) in February.
That ship, which does not have an exhaust gas scrubber, is earning $23,500 per day under that charter, according to the Clarksons and VesselsValue databases.
The Sparto transaction emerges at a time when LR2 spot rates have been falling from a 12-month high in early May.
On Wednesday, the Baltic Exchange reported time-charter equivalent rates on the benchmark TC1 route from the Middle East to Japan at nearly $21,900 per day, down from a peak of $64,400 per day on 11 May.
