Shipowners Filippos and Andonis Lemos are believed to be closing in on a long-term charter for a VLCC at the highest rate seen for around four years.
The potential deal offers the latest positive data point for the crude tanker market, which has seen asset prices take off and charter business intensify ahead of IMO 2020 rules.
Lemos family company Enesel is hotly-tipped to be nearing a charter for the 319,000-dwt Maria P Lemos (built 2018), one of its scrubber-fitted eco newbuildings.
Talk sweeping the market is of a rate at $43,500 per day for a three-year charter with Mercuria, which was said to remain on subjects.
Oslo broker Fearnleys says the three-year rate for a VLCC is $37,500 per day. Data from Clarksons shows VLCC time charter rates have not been above $40,000 per day since January 2016, having briefly touched $44,000 per day over three years the previous month.
However, the transaction is on the table at a time when tanker market sources report growing demand and vastly improved terms in the period market.
Charterers are believed to be seeking all types of tankers for both longer periods and more attractive rates, ahead of IMO 2020 which some believe will fire the starting pistol on the next tanker super-cycle.
Such a strong VLCC time charter adds support to the escalating asset prices, which have Arne Fredly’s Hunter on the cusp of a lucrative sale of two resales from its eight-strong orderbook.
The $98m per tanker price would mark the highest figure paid for a VLCC resale in half a decade if the transaction closes.
Enesel ordered four sisterships at HHI in February 2017 for $83m each, with three of the four ships now delivered.
Today they are likely worth in the region of $94m to $95m each.
The family has been in shipping for 170 years and is known to favour a conservative approach with long-term contract coverage.
VLCC rates have slipped back in the second quarter with the second half of this year expected to see earnings ramp up ahead of IMO 2020 rules being initiated.
Howe Robinson Partners placed spot rates for eco VLCCs at $20,905 per day on Tuesday evening, below the $30,700 average in the year to date.
The VLCC space is not the only tanker sector to have attracted the attention of the Lemos family of late.
Earlier this month TradeWinds reported Enesel had doubled its suezmax tanker newbuilding orderbook at Daehan Shipbuilding.
Enesel returned to the suezmax sector last year with a two-ship deal at the South Korean yard and has now taken two options linked to that contract, sources said.
