Week 3, 2022 saw 20 tankers change hands, and 12 of these are a subset labelled Hafnia-Scorpio. Meanwhile, tanker demolition reached new highs in 2021, says an article published in Riviera Maritime Media.
VLCC
The highlight of the tanker sale and purchase market in the third week of 2022 was the 12-strong sale of Scorpio Tankers’ LR1 fleet to Hafnia. Officially, the notice given by Hafnia to the Oslo Bors was to head off rumours about the sale, but there appears to be a high level of confident the sale will take place.
At the uppermost end of the tanker scale, a single VLCC was reported sold – 2004-built, 318,800-dwt Sea Lynx was sold by Pantheon Tankers (believed to be controlled by Anna Angelicoussis Kanellakis).
In 2016, Sea Lynx, under Captain Antonios Psarianos, successfully rescued 21 fishermen off the Galapagos Islands. Ballast water treatment system-equipped Sea Lynx has been sold to unknown Middle East interests, according to VesselsValue.
Euronav fleet
Euronav has announced the results of the redelivery of four VLCCs at the maturity of a five-year sale and leaseback agreement, which produced a US$18M capital gain on disposal of Nautilus (2006; 307,284 dwt), Navarin (2007; 307,284 dwt), Neptun (2007; 307,284 dwt) and Nucleus (2007; 307,284 dwt).
After the departure of these four VLCCs, the Euronav fleet will comprise of 41 VLCCs, 27 Suezmax tankers, two FSOs and two V-Plus and Euronav recently welcomed two Suezmax tanker newbuildings into its fleet, Cedar (2022, 157,310 dwt) and Cypress (2022; 157,310 dwt). The delivery of three newbuilding VLCCs is scheduled for Q1 and Q2 2023.
Total scrap value
At the other end of the tanker size range, Netherlands-based Lauranne Shipping BV sold three of the eight small clean tankers in its fleet to an undisclosed buyer. The three Marineline-coated tank vessels LS Jamie, LS Evanne and LS Anne were built in Turkey.
Only one tanker, 1992-built, 9,300-dwt Saehan Chemstar was sold for recycling in week 3, 2022, in contrast to the record number sold in 2021.
According to a new report from VesselsValue junior cargo analyst Joey Daly, 2022 saw 704 vessels sold for scrap, with a combined capacity of 26.4M dwt and a total scrap value of US$2.7Bn.
“Tankers dominated the demolition market in 2021 with 301 vessels sold for scrap, accounting for 59% of all cargo vessels demolished,” was his analysis of the tanker portion of the scrapping, “the surge in tanker scrapping represents a remarkable 242% increase from 2020, when a mere 88 tanker demolition deals were closed.”
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Source: Riviera Maritime Media
