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Weekly Broker: VLCCs jump in price

Tankers continues to be hot in the secondhand sale and purchase sector, especially the large crude tankers, despite the recent corrections in the VLCC market where chartering rates are now down to around $80,000 per day. Prices for secondhand VLCCs have jumped by around 15% since mid-September. Despite the buoyant times, the actual number of ships across all sectors changing hands this month has been weak.

MR tankers have led the way once again with 10 units with an average age of 15 years sold this week.

“The positive outlook for the last quarter of the year and for 2020 have expanded interest from several owners that would like to further invest in this market. We expect activity for oil product units to remain on this upward trend over the coming weeks,” Allied Shipbroking said in its latest weekly report.

Advanced Shipping & Trading reported an en bloc deal in which US investment firm Vard Partners sold two of its 2003-built VLCCs, Energy R and Power D. The two Hyundai Samho-built tankers are believed to have been sold to Greek owner NGM Energy for $30m each. NGM also recently acquired the 2000-built VLCC DS Commodore from DS Tankers.

Lorentzen & Stemoco listed a deal whereby South Korea owner Pan Ocean bought a resale VLCC newbuild (hull 5464) at DSME for a price of $107.5m. The vessel was originally ordered by Hartree Partners and is expected to be delivered in 2020.

Allied Shipbroking, Advanced Shipping & Trading and Clarksons all reported that Indian owner Seven Islands Shipping acquired the 2004-built 35,200 dwt MR tanker Rita Maersk for a price of $8.2m. The Chinese-built vessel has been renamed Feather.

On dry bulk, Allied Shipbroking noted: “We seem to have hit a pause in the market from a fairly active year so far. The fair corrections that have taken place in the freight market lately seem to have curbed buying interest for the time being, something that is likely to continue over the following weeks. Focus was given these past few days on the panamax and supramax sizes, as these sectors look to be less volatile while at the same time their current earnings are still at satisfactory levels.”

Intermodal, Advanced Shipping & Trading and Banchero Costa all reported the sale of the 2003-built, 55,180 dwt supramax bulker Navios Hios. The Japanese built vessel was sold to Greek buyers for a price of $7.65m.

Intermodal also listed a deal in which Taiwanese owner Ho Feng Maritime sold its 2001-built 23,600 dwt handy bulker Ho Bao to Chinese buyers. The vessel has fetched a price of $4.2m.

Advanced Shipping & Trading, Seasure Shipbroking and Banchero Costa reported that Greek owner Arista Shipping sold its 2004 Imabari-built handy bulker Panforce. The 28,000 dwt vessel was sold to Chinese interests for a price of $5.9m.

There has been no deals reported in the secondhand containership sale and purchase market this week, however Braemar ACM noted a healthy level of enquiry across most sectors.

Jason Jiang

Jason is one of the most prolific writers on the diverse China shipping & logistics industry and his access to the major maritime players with business in China has proved an invaluable source of exclusives. Having been working at Asia Shipping Media since inception, Jason is the chief correspondent of Splash and associate editor of Maritime CEO magazine. Previously he had written for a host of titles including Supply Chain Asia, Cargo Facts and Air Cargo Week.
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