Nordic American Tankers (NAT) has sold one of its suezmax tankers in line with its fleet overhaul plans announced in the summer.
The Herbjorn Hansson-led shipowner did not reveal the identity of the tanker involved, but said it expects the transaction to be “fixed and firm shortly”.
In late July the US-listed suezmax specialist told investors that it was “working to sell a few ships and to buy some ships”.
The company said it would sell at least two ships built in 2000 and 2002 and acquire “two or more younger vessels”.
The oldest ship in NAT’s fleet is the 150,183-dwt Nordic Sirius (built 2000). The next oldest are four vessels all built in 2002 — the Nordic Grace, the Nordic Mistral, the Nordic Moon and the Nordic Passat.
In total, NAT has 10 ships built pre-2005 that brokers view as ideal sales candidates —especially as higher steel prices this year have lifted the value of later-stage ships materially.
The 10 ships are currently valued at about $154.8m in total, according to VesselsValue.
Some 32 suezmax tankers have changed hands so far this year on the secondhand market in deals worth a total of $712m, according to figures compiled by Greece’s Allied Shipbroking.
The last reported sale was Sovcomflot's en bloc disposal of the SCF Caucasus and the SCF Sayan (both built 2002) for $16.4m and $16m respectively.
Last year, NAT ordered two newbuildings from South Korea’s from Samsung Heavy Industries with deliveries scheduled for 2022.
The ships were contracted in September 2020 for just $55m apiece but are now worth nearly $74m each due to the rise in the sale-and-purchase market, according to figures from Clarksons.
