A ten-year VLCC has reportedly been sold for $28.3m in what sets a new low for tanker values in the secondhand market.
The 319,000-dwt Samho Dream (built 2002) is said to have failed to reach its reserve at auction in Hong Kong on Wednesday, according to ICAP Shipping.
The shipbroker says it understands that unnamed London-based buyers acquired the ship in a private deal for $28.3m.
Clarksons had previously valued a ten-year-old VLCC at $39m, while vesselsvalue.com had placed a figure of $39.6m on the Samho Dream.
Earlier this week Clarksons warned that VLCC asset prices were likely to take a hit following the sale of the once-pirated ship.
“Taking into account the speckled history of this vessel, and continued strains in the charter markets, most are expecting the ship to set a new low in asset values,” it said.
South Korea’s Samho Shipping bought the ship for $137m in early 2008 from Greece’s Dynacom Shipping.
Last month a judge in Hong Kong ordered the auction of the Samho Dream which has been under arrest in the city since October.
Lawyers from Holman Fenwick Willan, acting on behalf of creditor Shinhan Bank, had the VLCC arrested on its arrival in Hong Kong late last year.
The ship hit the headlines in April last year when it has hijacked by pirates off Somalia while en route from Iraq to the US.
The ship and its crew of 24 were eventually released after 217 days after the owners reportedly paid a ransom of $9m to the hijackers.
A year after the hijacking Samho Shipping filed for bankruptcy protection after the Busan-based company ran out of cash.
It blamed the predicament the hijacking of two of its ships, the collapse of the shipping market and buying ships at the top of the market.
