Major Greek owner Thenamaris is scooping up modern tonnage in several different shipping markets.
Two months after the company was tied to the acquisition of four young newcastlemaxes from Polaris Shipping, broker sources say it is moving on modern product tankers as well.
Xclusiv Shipbrokers in Athens reports that the Martinos family outfit is now spending $53m each to acquire a pair of scrubber-fitted MR2 units under construction at Jiangsu New Yangzi Shipbuilding in China.
Under Hull Nos 1515 and 1516, the pair are due for completion in February and May 2025, respectively.
There is some confusion in the market about the identity of the would-be seller who originally ordered them.
S&P Global Market lists both hulls as contracted by an “unknown owner”.
Clarksons, by contrast, attributes them to Greece’s Evalend Shipping in a deal signed in December 2022.
TradeWinds indeed reported at the time that the Kriton Lendoudis-led company booked at least one pair of MR2s at the Chinese yard.
Evalend and Thenamaris do not publicly discuss commercial matters.
A second market source suggested that the seller could be the Scorpio Group, which Clarksons also lists as having ordered a pair of such vessels at the same yard.
Scorpio Tankers, however, says on its website that the company currently has no newbuildings.
A third market source said the newbuildings may have been sold by the yard itself.
In another MR2 resale deal reported by TradeWinds in February, Piraeus and New York-based SteelShips sold a pair of scrubber-fitted and LNG-ready MR2 newbuildings under construction at K Shipbuilding, due in 2025, for more than $50m each.
High-value deals in a slowing market
Soaring tanker prices in the wake of the Ukraine war have curbed, but not extinguished, buying interest in the secondhand market, especially for modern or resale tonnage.
According to Xclusiv, Greek interests have sold 16 tankers and acquired 14 so far this year, which ranks the country’s shipowners first among sellers and second among buyers.
Greek buying interest has focused on modern tonnage, with six out of 14 acquisitions recorded by Xclusiv concerning ships built in 2018 or later.
US-listed Tsakos Energy Navigation accounts for most of that activity, with an acquisition worth between $350m and $400m for five tankers from Viken Shipping.
Overall sale-and-purchase activity in tankers has been far slower this year than in bulkers.
According to Clarksons, 142 tankers with a capacity of 13.7m dwt have been reported as changing hands since January, down 10% year on year.
Both Clarksons’ Secondhand Tanker Price Index and the Tanker Newbuilding Index are at their highest levels since 2008 and 2009, respectively.
