Shipping giants Maersk and Schoeller-controlled Columbia Group have joined forces to invest in a secondhand VLCC from a reputable Japanese yard.
According to two market sources speaking on condition of anonymity, the two groups have formed a joint venture that spent about $55m on the 301,600-dwt Apollo Harmony (built 2010).
It is not clear yet exactly which entities are involved in the investment.
A spokesperson for Columbia said the company preferred not to comment at this stage. Managers at Maersk Tankers, the most likely player to be involved on the Danish side of the deal, said that “as a matter of principle, we do not comment on rumours and speculation”.
Maersk companies have not been listed with a VLCC for a decade, following the sale of 15 ships to Euronav in 2014.
After buying pool operator Penfield Marine in January, Maersk Tankers has been serving as a “one-stop-shop” for every kind of crude and product carrier, except VLCCs.
The Apollo Harmony is currently owned by Idemitsu Kosan, which bought it from Japanese peer K Line in late 2019 — when the ship was trading as Nagaragawa — for between $47m and $48m.
Idemitsu’s asset play is in line with rising tanker values since the outbreak of the Ukraine war.
VLCCs, however, have appreciated far less than smaller tanker types.
According to Athens brokers WeberSeas, 15-year-old VLCC prices are at present 34% above their five-year average. Suezmaxes, LR2/aframaxes, LR1 and panamax of the same age, by contrast, have gained between 66% and 78% over their five-year-average benchmarks.
The Apollo Harmony was built at IHI Marine United and does not have another special survey due until March 2025.
Some brokers have tied Greece’s Smart Tankers to the ship at a price of $53.8m or $58m. TradeWinds, however, is told that this information is mistaken.
Maersk has exited a number of shipping markets in the past decade, but in some cases it has since returned.
Maersk Tankers was involved in gas shipping from 1972 until it sold the business in 2013. It re-entered the business in April last year.
Tina Revsbech was named CEO in May after a series of management changes when its tanker pool was cut by about one-third from 220 since the start of 2022, largely because of structural changes within the industry following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
