An aframax tanker sale appears to mark a rare instance of a vessel leaving the market.
Brokers reported Hong Kong’s Nam Fung Shipping has sold the 105,700-dwt Planet Pearl (built 2005) to Malaysian interests for $29m.
Sources name the buyer as Petaling Jaya-based Duta Marine and the company is now appearing as the vessel’s manager in shipping databases.
The databases also list the ship’s name as changing to the Permata Dulang.
Duta Marine has worked in oil and gas projects in its native Malaysia and has bid on projects in India.
It owns three ships and its only tanker is the 105,350-dwt Duta Pacific (built 1995), which it uses for floating storage.
Duta Marine did not return a request for comment, nor did Nam Fung Shipping.
One broker told TradeWinds that if Duta Marine was indeed the Planet Pearl’s buyer it would likely end up undergoing conversion into a floating storage and offloading, despite the ship being on the smaller side for such work.
There have been few instances in recent years where aframax tankers have left the global fleet, either for demolition or for what Clarksons terms “miscellaneous removals”.
There were five aframaxes scrapped in February 2022, two in March and one each from April through July, but just five have headed to the breakers.
Over the same period, a single vessel departed the fleet as a miscellaneous removal.
The Planet Pearl’s $29m price tag is below VesselsValue’s $32.5m estimate but within MSI Horizon’s $28.9m to $33.7m range.
The remainder of Duta Marine’s fleet consists of a bulker, a tug and a mobile offshore production unit.
Nam Fung Shipping is part of the Nam Fung Group, which has holdings in real estate and life sciences in addition to shipping.
The company does not maintain a fleet list but according to VesselsValue controls five tankers less the Planet Pearl, including four aframaxes and a handysize.
The valuation service lists all vessels as trading in pools.
