Finnish oil company Neste has contradicted broker reports that it has sold two small clean tankers this week.
Sale-and-purchase updates from broking houses contained the names of the 14,750-dwt Kiisla (built 2004) and Suula (built 2005), said to have been offloaded for $12m en bloc.
Neste told TradeWinds it still owns the pair and they have not been sold.
The price had appeared way below valuation estimates, even in a very quiet secondhand market.
VesselsValue has the ships as worth a little above $11m each.
Neste is also listed as controlling two aframaxes.
The Kiisla and Suula were among the few names linked to sales this week.
Brokers said transactions involving smaller, older vessels up to MR size were continuing to trickle in, but larger vessels were conspicuous by their absence.
The latest sale reported was that of the 13,100-dwt product and chemical tanker G Star (built 2006), which has gone to an Indonesian buyer for $9.9m, with a dry-docking due.
Broker lists bare
VesselsValue assesses the ship as worth $11.5m.
GSM Co of South Korea offloaded the tanker to Pancaran Samudera Transport.
Some brokers did not report a single tanker sale this week, and the ones that did recorded minor deals, while all fretted about high asset values and market liquidity.
“The secondhand market has struggled for liquidity throughout this year, and it looks like the final six weeks of 2024 will be no different,” Fearnleys said in its weekly note.
“The list of sales candidates is growing as owners look to capture historical highs, but investors are uneasy given a lull in rates and ongoing geopolitical uncertainty.”
