First came in with the new, and now it is out with the old as Ardmore Shipping struck a deal to sell a 14-year-old product tanker after buying a younger secondhand vessel.
And the sale comes with a price tag that represents a significant capital gain for the New York-listed tanker owner.
The company has sold the 50,100-dwt Ardmore Seafarer (built 2010) for $27.2m, shipbrokers and other market sources said.
An Ardmore executive declined to comment on the reports.
Ardmore, based in Cork, Ireland, bought the MR tanker in 2020, when it was the Maersk Murotsu, for $16.7m in a deal with Fuyo Kaiun.
One market source said the transaction is part of the “bigger picture” of Ardmore’s efforts to renew its fleet.
The deal follows the company’s move to buy the 50,000-dwt St Pauli (built 2017) from Meiji Shipping in Japan for $42m.
In confirming that deal to TradeWinds, Ardmore chief executive Anthony Gurnee said it was part of a “bigger fleet modernisation plan”.
Some Greek shipbrokers have named Great Eastern Shipping as the buyer of the Ardmore Seafarer, but the Indian company could not be reached for comment after business hours in Mumbai.
However, earlier on Tuesday, Great Eastern chief financial officer G Shivakumar said in an earnings conference that values of assets in sale-and-purchase market are too high.
“We’ll be a little slow to make new purchases,” he said.
In fact, the reported price tag for the Ardmore Seafarer is higher than market expectations.
Maritime Strategies International estimates the ship is worth $24.7m, while VesselsValue puts it at $24.5m.
The ship, which has no scrubbers fitted, was built at Japan’s Onomichi Dockyard, regarded as a high-quality outfit.
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