Reederei Nord has sold its last LR1 product tanker amid a firm market for coated panamax tankers that continues eliciting ample buying interest.
Several brokers report that the German company obtained $30m for the 74,000-dwt Two Million Ways (built 2008).
This covers much of the $38m that Reederei Nord spent to acquire the ship 13 years ago.
The price also compares favourably to the $15.5m that Reederei Nord raised in January 2023, when it sold the somewhat older, 75,000-dwt Nordneptun (renamed Fair World, built 2004). TradeWinds reported on Tuesday how the Fair World is now being sold again by its current Turkish owners for about $20.5m.
This is all evidence that despite their rapid price appreciation, coated panamax tankers continue to be a coveted investment — especially ice-classed ones such as the Two Million Ways.
Eva Tzima, head of research at Athens-based Seaborne Shipbrokers, said: “The recent spike in sales of long-marketed older LR1s is indicative of the faith investors still have in the sector’s potential.”
According to Tzima, older LR1s have enjoyed one of the best price-earnings relationships since 2022. This explains their appeal, which has not been lost “by any means” during the usually slower summer period, she added.
One market source said the buyers of the Onomichi-built Two Million Ways are Indian. This suggests that companies such as Great Eastern Shipping or Sanmar Shipping could be involved in the deal.
Other, non-Indian buyers of LR1s have come from Switzerland and Greece.
TradeWinds has already reported about Geneva-based Advantage Tankers buying five such ships on the secondhand market last year.
A more recent buyer has been Akrotiri Tankers — a new outfit of the Procopiou family, which acquired in May the 76,600-dwt Hafnia Thames (renamed Bam Bam, built 2008).
Akrotiri, which was set up by Marielena Procopiou and her husband Konstantinos Lampsias, has since emerged with a second LR1 vessel — the 75,000-dwt Avra Patros (renamed Solo, built 2008), which was sold in June by Greek peer Grace Shipping for $29.75m.
Busy secondhand player
Managers at Reederei Nord did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the reported sale of the Two Million Ways.
A busy secondhand player, Reederei Nord had already reduced its presence in the coated panamax market by selling four Hyundai-constructed LR1s in two separate deals since December 2020.
A traditional, family-owned shipowner and manager, controlled by brothers Christian and Nikolaus Oldendorff, Reederei Nord has another 11 tankers left, from MR2s to aframaxes.
The company’s tanker fleet is managed out of an Amsterdam office set up in 2013. Five years later, Reederei Nord teamed with Nissen Kaiun and Synergy Group to set up the Amsterdam and Singapore-based aframax chartering pool N2 Tankers.
Reederei Nord also manages 10 bulkers and 13 container ships.
Its boxship fleet stands to grow after an order last year for four feeder newbuildings. In March 2024, however, Reederei Nord flipped one of those newbuildings to French liner operator Marfret for $30m.
Speaking at a TradeWinds Shipowners Forum at the SMM in Hamburg on Monday, Reederei Nord managing director Kurt Klemme said the only future fuelling solution he feels comfortable with is methanol.
