Some $1.17bn worth of tankers and newbuildings linked to crisis-hit Ocean Tankers have emerged as sales candidates on the secondhand market.
Sale-and-purchase brokers said the market is “flooded” with ships that are tied to Ocean Tankers’ founder Lim Oon Kim, who is better known in shipping circles as OK Lim.
The Chinese-built vessels include crude, product and chemical tankers of various sizes.
According to shipbroker sales lists obtained by TradeWinds, Lim is selling 12 LR2 product tankers, all of his five LR1 tankers and almost half of his VLCCs.
The information shows he has also put two handysize chemical tankers on the sales market.
The tankers are registered under various company names that are subsidiaries of Xihe Group, which is controlled by the Lim family.
Lim is said to have tasked several big shipbroking houses to carry out the sales. Clarksons, Braemar ACM Shipbroking, Arrow Shipbroking and Maersk Broker have been mentioned.
In April, Ocean Tankers applied to a Singapore court for protection from creditors, as it was facing arrest writs against some of its tankers over claims of misdelivered cargoes that could total $600m.
The court placed the privately-owned company under judicial management and appointed two executives from Ernst & Young (EY)'s Singapore office as interim judicial managers.
EY said Ocean Tankers is unable to comment on the tanker sales as the vessels are owned by the Xihe Group.
Ocean Tankers chief executive Evan Lim — son of OK Lim whom in the past dealt with the press — was not available for comment.
A broker said the S&P tanker market has been quiet since early June and market sentiment was that it may shrink further.
“There may still be buyers out there,” another S&P broker said. “But it is a matter of how much they are willing to pay for the ships. There may be buyers that are looking to take the vessels en bloc.”
Meanwhile, brokers said Chinese shipbuilder Fujian Mawei Shipbuilding is looking to sell four 13,800-dwt, IMO II type chemical tankers and 12 product carriers of 23,500 dwt each that were ordered by Ocean Tankers, as it harbours little hope that the Lim family will be taking delivery of the newbuildings.
Some industry observers are confused by the size of the larger tanker newbuildings as Clarksons’ Shipping Intelligence Networkand VesselsValue list Fujian Mawei to be building vessels of 34,750 dwt, rather than 23,500 dwt.
Capacity confusion
“The shipbuilding contract documented that they are 23,500-dwt vessels but the tankers have the capacity to load up to 34,750 dwt of cargoes,” a shipbuilding player familiar with the deal said.
A Fujian Mawei executive played down talk that the ships could be sold, saying Ocean Tankers has shown interest in taking delivery of all its newbuildings.
Ocean Tankers ordered 20 tankers — 14 product carriers of 23,500 dwt and six chemical tankers — at Fujian Mawei between the end of 2017 and early last year.
The total value of the newbuildings was estimated to be worth about $442m, with the product tankers costing about $26m each and the chemical tankers $13m apiece.
The yard has already delivered two of the chemical tankers and a pair of product tankers.
An S&P broker said it will not be easy to find buyers for the 34,750-dwt product tanker newbuildings as the Xihe Group has ordered them specifically for the Asian trades.
This story has been amended since publication to reflect that the vessels being marketed for sale, including newbuildings, are worth an estimated total of $1.75bn.
