Illustrative of the sharp decline in prices for secondhand VLCC tonnage seen this year, Clarkson Research reports that Teekay has sold the five-year-old Shoshone Spirit for just $62m to Greece’s Pantheon Tankers. Similar aged ships were trading for as much as $75m four months ago.
Shoshone Spirit was formerly knows as C Elephant and belonged to Nobu Su’s TMT previously. The sale marks Teekay Corp’s exit from VLCC ownership.
The VLCC spot market has in the past week dropped to its lowest level since October 2014, with TCE earnings for Middle East/Japan (TD3) falling close to $20,000 a day.