Tankers’ impressive run since war broke out in Ukraine continues to create windows of opportunity for owners that bought vessels on the cheap over the past months and years.
As trade patterns are redrawn amid the conflict, demand for tankers has skyrocketed.
TradeWinds has reported on a number of such deals in recent weeks — and the business shows little sign of slowing down.
Aframaxes have been one of the most sought-after vessel types and they have taken centre stage this month, said Eva Tzima, head of research at Seaborne Shipbrokers.
“Owners of bigger crude sizes [are] possibly holding back on hopes that sizeable profits can be made by trading,” she wrote in a weekly note on 5 September.
In perhaps the most notable asset play to emerge this week, Athens-based brokers report that Greek shipowner Evangelos Marinakis found United Arab Emirates-based buyers for the 113,500-dwt Aristodimos (built 2006) for $32m.
Managers at Marinakis company Capital Ship Management did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
If confirmed, however, that deal would be even more profitable than the one for a pair of MRs that Marinakis is said to have sold recently to Tufton Oceanic Assets.
Capital bought the ice-class Aristodimos about four years ago from BP Shipping for just about $13.5m — a price almost $20m less than the company is reportedly achieving today.
Marinakis had acquired another two aframaxes from BP in 2018. He flipped these two ships about a year later to Buana Lintas Lautan — again at a profit, although not as big as the one he is to generate with the Aristodimos.
The speed at which tanker prices move is also highlighted by the fact that the Aristodimos was rumoured to have been sold early last month for $26m — about $6m less than today’s level.
In another profitable aframax asset play, clients of Turkey-based Monumont Shipping are said to have sold the 105,600-dwt Zhen I (ex-Alfa Italia, built 2002) for about $17.7m — about $5m more than the ship was worth just six months ago when Finland’s Lundqvist Rederierna decided to divest it.
The 113,800-dwt Lila Fujairah (built 2007), a ship listed as an LR2 but trading in dirty oil products, is now said to have generated its owner about $10m in profits in the span of barely four months.
Lila Global, the independent trading fleet arm of cash buyer GMS, bought the vessel in early May for about $17.5m.
Several brokers now report the same ship to have fetched $27.8m in a sale to unidentified buyers in late August.
Owners of smaller tankers are benefiting from the rising tide as well.
Zeus Line Management, a company affiliated with Greece’s Benetech group, is believed to have made a $10m gain with the 75,000-dwt tanker Aristos (ex-Hafnia Europe, built 2006).
Clients of Zeus Line purchased the ship in early 2021 for about $11.3m. Brokers based in Athens and in the US now report that the ship is being flipped to UAE-based buyers for between $21m and $22m.
Zeus Line managers did not immediately respond for comment.
