Germany's Reederei Nord has contradicted shipbroking reports of a double sale of elderly LR1 tankers.
But the company has indicated that older ships will be moved on.
Brokers reported that the 75,000-dwt Nordmerkur and Nordneptun (both built 2004) had been offloaded to unnamed United Arab Emirates (UAE) buyers for $10m each.
VesselsValue assesses the ships as worth $23m combined.
Adriaan Ruppell, co-managing director of Reederei Nord, told TradeWinds: "It is correct that we are exploring the sale of our older ships."
But he added the current sales reports were not correct.
The vessels operate in the Hafnia LR1 pool.
Second sales report
This is the second time that the tankers have been reported sold in the last year.
TradeWinds cited European brokers in December 2020 as saying Reederei Nord was sharply reducing its presence in the LR1 tanker segment.
The diversified shipowner, controlled by twin brothers Nikolaus and Christian Oldendorff, was said to have sold four vessels in the segment at the upper end of price expectations.
The Nordmerkur and Nordneptun were named as part of a $41m en-bloc sale with sisterships Nordvenus and Nordmars (both built 2004).
The buyer was not known, but it is now listed as Nan Lian Shipmanagement of the UAE, which has renamed the Nordvenus and Nordmars as Black Ocean and Crystal 1, respectively.
The remaining pair of LR1s are among the company's oldest vessels, with only the 2,478-teu boxship Nordatlantic (built 2003) pre-dating them. Another LR1 tanker dates from 2008.
Boxship sales gain
Already this month, Reederei Nord has profited from the soaring container market with the sale of its 10th container ship this year.
The Hamburg-based company sold the 1,774-teu-teu Nordamstel (built 2019) in a market that co-managing director Kurt Klemme described as the highest seen in 50 years of container shipping.
The price was believed to be in line with similar sales at about $40m, although terms and the buyer have not been disclosed.
That would point to a near doubling of values in the two years since Nord acquired the Nordamstel and the sistership Nordmaas (built 2019) in the summer of 2019.
Nord and a private equity partner reportedly paid less than $50m en bloc for the vessels, which were originally ordered by UK-based Lomar Shipping at Jiangsu Yangzijiang Shipbuilding in China.
