In contrast to a dry bulk sale-and-purchase market that has been more or less dead in the water this month, the secondhand market for tankers is firing on all cylinders.
Greeks, in particular, have been busy offloading tanker tonnage acquired at low prices weeks, months or even years ago.
In the latest such deal reported by several brokers, Kondinave likely almost doubled its money on a 16-year-old aframax it bought five years ago.
The Alexis Kondylis-led outfit has been rumoured since earlier this month to have found a willing buyer for the 106,000-dwt tanker Oberon (built 2006) at $25m.
However, London-based brokers reported on 19 August that a deal with Middle Eastern buyers has been concluded at a higher price of $26m.
That is almost twice the $13.8m that an affiliate of Piraeus-based Kondinave spent to buy the ship in 2017 in an auction.
The Oberon was trading as Ocean Mare at the time in the fleet of India’s Varun Shipping.
The Oberon is the oldest tanker in Kondinave’s fleet, which consists of another aframax and three MRs. Kondinave also features 10 managed bulkers on its website.
Managers at the Athens-based company did not respond to a request for comment.
Playing both sides of the fence
Westport Tankers, another Greek outfit, is believed to have made a considerable profit from an aframax over a much shorter time frame.
London-based brokers report that the company has concluded a deal to sell the 105,200-dwt Argo (built 2009) to undisclosed buyers at a remarkable $34.5m.
Managers at Westport Tankers were not immediately available for comment.
However, the company is known to have already sold another tanker it acquired on the cheap earlier this year.
As TradeWinds already reported, Westport sold the 115,600-dwt Nicholas (built 2007) to Chinese interests for between $27m and $27.7m in July — five months after buying it for merely $17.2m.
The profit margin Westport realised now with the putative sale of the Argo is more difficult to establish.
Westport, a company co-led by members of the Tsangaris family, acquired the ship from Greek peer Atlas Maritime in October 2021 for an undisclosed price.
The ship’s value has definitely soared since then. VesselsValue indicates that the South Korean-built vessel, which was trading as Aspasia Lemos before changing hands last year, was worth just about $19m at the time.
Westport seems to be looking to repeat its aframax asset plays with bigger tankers, whose value appreciation has been trailing that of MRs, LRs and aframaxes so far.
Last week, TradeWinds identified the company as the buyer of a suezmax sold by Ridgebury Tankers — the 146,500-dwt Ridgebury Mary Selena (built 2006) — for $31m.
Sales piling up
The example of the Ridgebury Mary Selena shows that as tanker values soar in the aftermath of the war in Ukraine, Greek players are making a mark both as sellers and buyers.
However, it is the sales — the asset plays in particular — that have garnered the biggest attention.
According to TradeWinds data, Hellenic players have sold 22 tankers in confirmed deals so far this year — from small chemical carriers to VLCCs.
Adding deals reported by brokers but not actually confirmed by ship registers yet, the number of Greek sales rises to 34 ships — including 10 aframaxes, nine MRs, as well as four VLCCs, four LRs and three suezmaxes.
Non-Greek players, such as oil trader Vitol and US-based Ridgebury Tankers, have also benefited greatly from the rising market to sell ships.
In one of the Greek aframax sales that took place in June but remained under the radar so far, Saudi Arabia’s Bihar has emerged as the buyer of Sea World Management’s 106,100-dwt Sea Beech (renamed Liana, built 2003).
The aframax fetched a respectable price of between $15m and $16m but is already estimated to be worth $21m now, according to VesselsValue.
Sweet spot
Moving on to MRs, Athens-based Ancora Investment Trust has found a good opportunity to offload its second-oldest ship — the 46,000-dwt Crown II (built 2003) — which ship-management sources say went to undisclosed buyers at an undisclosed price.
The sale comes less than a month after MR specialist Ancora took delivery of the 40,000-dwt Akti (built 2022) — an ammonia and LNG-ready tanker newbuilding from Hyundai Vietnam.
When it comes to fleet renewal, the market could not have provided Ancora with a spot as sweet as this one.
