Even for a tanker giant with a fleet of 111 product carriers, the sale of five MRs for nearly $200m would be a big deal.
But it is not a deal that New York-listed Scorpio Tankers is actually making, despite multiple broker reports to the contrary, tanker market sources told TradeWinds.
The confusion around the supposed disposals appears to stem from another deal that did prove out: International Seaways’ purchase of six MR tankers from US private equity player Wayzata Investment Partners for $232m, as reported by TradeWinds on 16 February and later confirmed by Seaways.
Those vessels have been under management by Scorpio and are sister vessels to the tankers with New York-themed names now being rumoured to be Scorpio sales: the 49,990-dwt STI Bronx, STI Brooklyn, STI Manhattan, STI Queens and STI Gramercy (all built 2015).
Reports have the series constructed at South Korea’s SPP Shipbuilding selling for $39m a copy. But a source insisted that the quintet is not being sold and instead is being conflated with the 2014-built and 2015-built Wayzata vessels, also built at SPP, that are indeed being sold.
An attempt to reach Scorpio Tankers management for comment was not successful by TradeWinds’ deadline.
In the Seaways transaction, distressed-asset specialist Wayzata acquired the sextet in two separate resale transactions in 2013 and 2014 as newbuildings under construction at SPP, according to VesselsValue.
The Wayzata ships are coming on a staggered delivery schedule, with all handed over by the end of the second quarter, Seaways said. The buyer is paying 15% of the price with its stock, with the balance being paid by available liquidity. The purchases will lower the average age of Seaways’ MR fleet to 13 years from 14 years.
At the same time, Seaways has been a seller of older MR tonnage. With the disposal of two 2008-built units in the fourth quarter, it brings to 18 the number of MRs Seaways has sold in the past 30 months.
Most of these were acquired in its 2021 acquisition of Diamond S Shipping in a $416m all-stock deal.
