Sale price for aframax pair reveals extent of secondhand tanker slump

Two aframaxes are changing hands at prices that show a drop in value of more than $10m over the past year, though the levels are still historically strong.

Among the reported deals, Advantage Tankers’ 115,900-dwt Advantage Award (built 2011) is being sold for $36.5m, according to shipbrokers in Greece and the US.

The figure is down from VesselsValue’s estimates that it was worth $40m in May and $52m this time last year, when secondhand aframax values were near their peak in the boom that followed Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

The Advantage Award has been on a bareboat charter to Advantage Tankers from Shanghai-based SPDB Financial Leasing since May 2022.

The lessor told TradeWinds that, contrary to reports by some brokers that the deal has been concluded, the sale process remains ongoing.

“We are in the midst of selling it,” a company source said.

The ship, built at South Korea’s Samsung Heavy Industries, has been in Advantage’s fleet since the Swiss company took over the fleet of Geden Lines in 2014.

Several shipbroking houses in the US, Singapore and Greece reported that undisclosed buyers have picked up the 105,700-dwt Aqua Pearl (built 2005) for around $24.8m.

Some brokers believe it has been sold to a Singapore-based company.

The Aqua Pearl, built at Japan’s Sumitomo Heavy Industries, was due for dry-docking at the time of the deal, but the price tag is in line with estimates of its value. VesselsValue puts a ship of these characteristics at $24.9m, while Maritime Strategies International’s MSI Horizon estimates its value at $23.3m.

However, VesselsValue estimates that a ship of these characteristics was worth $27m in April and $34.8m a year ago.

S&P Global data shows the Aqua Pearl is owned by Nan Fung Shipping, a unit of Hong Kong conglomerate Nan Fung Group, which is primarily involved in the real estate sector but has a fleet of five aframax tankers and an MR2 tanker.

TradeWinds has contacted the company for confirmation of the deal.

Apart from the 2005-built Aqua Pearl, all the aframaxes in the Nan Fung fleet date from 2009.

In August 2024, Nan Fung sold an identical sister ship to the Aqua Pearl, the 105,700-dwt Planet Pearl (built 2005) to Duta Marine of Malaysia for a reported $29m.

Renamed Permata Dulang, it is being converted into a floating storage and offloading vessel that will serve the Dulang field off Malaysia on contract to Petronas.

source : tradewindsnews