The Shipping Corp of India has sold for recycling one of the two oldest product tankers in its fleet dating from the late 1990s.
The 32,900-dwt Suvarna Swarajya (built 1998) was sold on an “as is“ basis in Colombo via a tender auction process, cash buyers have reported.
Some reports published over the weekend suggested the ship was sold for recycling in compliance with the Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships, either in Alang or Chattogram.
SCI has been advertising a tender for the sale of the vessel in local and some international newspapers for several weeks, stating that the ship was available for further trading or recycling.
While the price that was offered by the tender winner has yet to be disclosed, according to the latest market reports, it would have fetched in the region of $490 per ldt if sold to an Indian recycling facility, or $540 per ldt if sold to Bangladesh.
TradeWinds understands from market sources that the Suvarna Swarajya has been idle off Colombo since November last year.
SCI, ship recycling sources said, moves its vessels outside of Indian waters before their sale for recycling. This practice allows the buyer to avoid paying sales tax on the ship, which would be the case if the vessel was sold to an Alang-based facility.
The sale of the Suvarna Swarajya leaves SCI with one other veteran product tanker in its fleet. The company has not indicated its plans for the 32,900-dwt Sampurna Swarajya (built 1999), an identical vessel to the one just sold for scrap.
However, ship recycling sources believe it could also be put up for recycling sale shortly as it has been idle for several months off Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates.
Ditching these two tankers would leave SCI with a fleet of 14 product tankers, all of which were built in either 2009 or 2010.
The company’s larger tanker fleet includes aframaxes, suezmaxes and VLCCs.
The sale of the Suvarna Swarajya came on a quiet week for the recycling sector, with the only other deals reported being the sales of a Chinese-owned handysize bulker and a small feeder container ship.
