Chinese brokers say the 56,800-dwt Lan Hai Chuang Ye and Lan Hai Tuo Zhan (both built 2011) were committed to a Chinese buyer at $11.7m each. The sale is based on the payment of a deposit but it was not immediately clear whether it was done through a court auction.

The ships, built at Yangfan Group’s Zhejiang Zengzhou facility and qualified for foreign or coastwise trading, are valued by online platform VesselsValue.com