Shipowners Emanuele Lauro and Evangelos Marinakis have cashed in on strong product tanker values with the sale of secondhand vessels to Indonesia’s Pertamina International Shipping.
Lauro’s Scorpio Tankers and Marinakis vehicle Capital Maritime & Trading have each sold a single LR2 to the ambitious Asian buyer, tanker sources and brokers say.
The deals come at a time when Pertamina International is exploring orders for similar newbuildings amid lofty targets for fleet growth.
Scorpio Tankers has been an active seller this year, divesting some of its first-generation eco vessels constructed in the first half of the last decade.
Now sources say the company has parted with the 109,000-dwt STI Lily (built 2019). A price of $73.5m to $74m has been suggested by brokers for the New Times-built tanker.
Scorpio Tankers has a fleet of over 100 ships on the water, with the STI Lily one of 39 LR2s in its trading fleet, according to fleet data on its website.
While product tanker newbuilding activity has been running at close to record levels this year, Scorpio Tankers has not added to the orderbook.
Instead, one of the largest owners in the business has been actively selling ships at high values and paying down debt in a freight market inflated by the rerouting of ships away from the Red Sea.
Brokers also point to Capital’s 109,900-dwt Alkinoos (built 2019) as heading for Pertamina International in the same $73.5m to $74m range.
Recent divestment
It would mark the latest divestment of a large tanker by Marinakis after Capital sold a fleet of nine VLCCs to Bahri in a $1bn deal this summer.
At the time sources stressed Marinakis was not seeking to exit the tanker business, where it retained both crude and product vessels.
Capital, Scorpio Tankers and Pertamina International have all been contacted for comment.
Pertamina International revealed plans to swell its fleet to 500 tankers and gas vessels by 2034 earlier this month.
The strategy comes alongside a target for revenue of $8.9bn within a decade, with 55% planned to come from overseas.
Pertamina International will own 200 of these ships, up from 102 now, TradeWinds reported earlier this month.
The growth plan includes an evolving project for LR2 newbuildings, as we reported in these pages last week.
Speaking to TradeWinds during the Gastech meeting in Houston, Pertamina International chief executive Yoki Firnandi said that if it wants to grow, the company cannot rely on the Indonesian market — where it is the major player — and will look internationally to expand its fleet.
Firnandi confided that the company plans to open a newbuilding tender soon for LR2 tankers, although not for as many ships as in the MR order, where 15 ships are on the shopping list.
