The wet secondhand market has picked up pace this week with a string of VLCC deals.
Malaysia’s MISC, via its tanker arm AET, has offloaded two Universal-built tankers – the 2007-built Bunga Kasturi Lima (300,246 dwt) and the 2008-built Bunga Kasturi Enam (299,319 dwt) – to Chinese interests for approximately $88m en bloc. One unit is due for drydocking. The vessels have already been renamed, with the elder ship now trading as Diva and the younger sister as Evan, each under separate single-purpose vehicles.
In a separate move, South Korea’s Sinokor Maritime is parting ways with another of its ageing units. The 2007-built Monaco Loyalty (307,000 dwt), built at Dalian Shipbuilding, has reportedly sold for a price in the low $40m range. The deal follows on the heels of another recent sale of a ship from the same yard where Greece’s Thenamaris recently sold its 2009-built Searacer for $48m.
Despite the flurry of VLCC activity, brokers note that prices across the crude sector remain moderately firm, with pricing broadly in line with other recent deals for similar vintage tonnage, underscoring the continued appetite in Asia for older VLCCs.
