Bergen-based J Ludwig Mowinckels Rederi is marketing its last suezmax for sale.
But chief executive Geir Belsnes told TradeWinds that brokers are too early in their reports of a sale of the 158,900-dwt crude carrier Vinga (built 2012) for a high price.
Mowinckels owns 50% of the vessel alongside Tom Steckmest-controlled Viken Shipping, which has been selling down in suezmaxes and owns just one other ship in that bracket.
A Viken official did not respond to requests for comment.
Current broker reports have the ship sold to unknown Greek buyers for $42m, a noteworthy price given that the Samsung Heavy Industries-built tanker has no ballast water treatment system and is due for a dry dock visit in November.
Some reports have identified Thenamaris as the buyer.
“The ship has been marketed for sale,” said Belsnes. “I’m not saying we are less interested in suezmaxes, but we agreed with our partners that this was a good time for a sale.”
The sale is not being done in connection with tonnage renewal. Some sources list Mowinckels with two suezmaxes on order at China’s New Times Shipbuilding, but Belsnes said this is a misunderstanding as those orders contemplated in 2020 were never confirmed.
The Vinga cost a reported $63m fresh from the yard 10 years ago.
Few comparable recent deals have been done for charter-free suezmax tonnage of similar vintage, except the sale by Viken in July of a sistership, the 158,800-dwt Dolviken (now Advantage Sweet, built 2012), to Advantage Tankers. TradeWinds then reported that the ship went for $41.25m, but that ship was post-special survey.
If and when a deal is done, that will leave Mowinckels with no holdings in crude tankers.
But Belsen said this does not represent a long-term plan for the opportunistic sale-and-purchase player.
“We get involved in various sectors at different times. We try to monitor all segments continuously. It could be anything ― dry bulk, crude, clean, chemical carriers,” said Belsnes.
Last year, the company picked up two chemical carriers at a good point in that market and placed them with the Bergen-managed Hansa Tankers pool, with whose performance he is pleased.
“It is not a sector we had been involved with in some years,” said Belsnes.
But the chemical carrier sector is not one where he is likely to strike again soon, thanks to the strong development of ship values there.
Mowinckels has typically placed crude tonnage on time charters of at least a year, but has also been involved in spot trading in dry bulk.
The company founded in 1898 is today chaired by Utkilen Rederi chairman Bjorn Sjaastad and owned by a family foundation that bears a historical legacy.
Founder Johan Ludwig Mowinckel, a three-time prime minister of Norway and a president of the League of Nations, was the business protege of another Bergen shipowner and prime minister, Christian Michelsen, the engineer of Norwegian independence from Sweden.
