Just in time for Christmas, Greek tanker player Roxana Shipping has taken delivery of an MR ship that marks its first expansion move in several years.

The Constantine Krontiras-led company has emerged as new manager of the 37,100-dwt MR tanker Nord Highlander (built 2007).

The ship, which will henceforth trade as Mavrouda, is one of several vessels divested by Norden recently, as the Danish company cashes out on some of its bulkers and renews its tanker fleet.

Norden’s disposal of the Nord Highlander probably presented a welcome opportunity for Roxana, which already operates ten ships of about the same type and age.

Managers at low-profile Roxana didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

In an internal company magazine published earlier in the year, however, the company said it was stepping up the "inspection of... many secondhand candidates to increase the tankers fleet of Roxana Shipping”.

Broking sources said in October that unidentified buyers spent between $8.6m and $8.8m on the Nord Highlander — a ship built at Hyundai Mipo Dockyard (HMD).

Rare buyer

This is Roxana’s first known expansion move since the period between 2008 and 2013, when the Athens-based company took delivery of its existing LR1 and MR1 ships from shipyards in China and South Korea.

To find Roxana acquire a tanker on the secondhand market, one has to go back even further to 2005.

Its timing to reenter the market now is characteristic of Greek counter-cyclical tanker buying that has been taking place for months.

Optimism about the post-Covid future market has been a key factor driving the secondhand tanker market, analysts at Athens-based Xclusiv Shipbrokers said in their latest report.

Other Greek companies that recently bought oil carriers, sometimes for the first time in years, include Stalwart Management, Alberta Shipmanagement and Chartworld Shipping and Spring Marine Management.

Such interest keeps asset values high — particularly for aframaxes and MR tankers that are the most sought-after vessels.

Analysts and shipping companies have repeatedly expressed their surprise and satisfaction at the resilience of tanker secondhand prices, in the teeth of the disappointing amounts these ships have been earning in 2021.

The Nord Highlander will now likely become part of the Roxana Tanker Pool. Roxana set up that structure in the middle of 2014 and initially planned to open it up to other shipowners.

By 2019, however, the company decided to concentrate solely on its owned vessels, developing the Roxana Tanker Pool as an in-house commercial management unit.