The sale of an elderly aframax by Pakistan National Shipping Corporation (PNSC) has provided a compelling example of buoyant tanker values.
The state shipowner confirmed in a filing to the Pakistan Stock Exchange that it had completed the sale of its 107,100-dwt Karachi (built 2003) to undisclosed interests this week.
The sale was first reported by shipbrokers in November at $19m or $21m.
The ship has a special survey due this month and was sold below VesselsValue's assessment at the time of $23.8m.
The vessel is now worth $29.7m, according to the valuation platform, a rise of nearly $6m during the time the deal was being worked on.
The buyer is still not known.
The Karachi was bought from Greece’s Tsakos Shipping & Trading in 2010 for $39m.
The aframax was worth only $13m a year ago.
PNSC retains 12 other tankers and bulkers, including five aframaxes.
Norwegian shipbroker Lorentzen & Co said that in 2022, secondhand values for five-year-old tankers increased by an average of 36% year-on-year.
New buyers
This was underpinned by a firming-up in vessel freight rates and also by new buyers entering the sale and purchase market to acquire ships for carriage of Russian oil, chief shipping analyst Nicolai Hansteen said.
Lorentzen & Co is a panellist for the Baltic Exchange’s tanker sale and purchase index, which showed VLCC values rising 29.3% last year, suezmaxes by 33.5%, and aframaxes up 44.9%.
On the clean side, MR prices rose by 44.6%.
"Historically, tanker values are now the highest since the post-financial crisis era," Hansteen said.
"Compared with earnings, tanker values still have considerable upside opportunity. However, with uncertainty looming large on earnings, values are being capped by the big risk-reward element," he added.
But the analyst believes that owners’ nerves will be calmed by vessel supply growth of only 4% for crude ships and 2% for product tankers this year.
