Mitsubishi Corp is offloading its only LR2 tanker.

The Japanese trading house is said to be seeking a buyer for the 115,000-dwt product tanker Glory Crescent (built 2013), which players claim is the only large unit left in Mitsubishi Corp’s fleet.

They add that the ship is operated by subsidiary Diamond Tanker in Singapore, although a source familiar with Mitsubishi Corp says the Glory Crescent is controlled by the parent and not Diamond Tanker.

A Mitsubishi Corp executive confirmed to TradeWinds that his company has plans to sell the Glory Crescent.

“We are checking on the market and if the offered price is reasonable, we may sell it,” he said.

He added that the Glory Crescent is currently trading in Maersk Tankers’ LR2 pool.

The sale of the Glory Crescent has fuelled market talk that Diamond Tanker will exit shipping after selling off the remaining vessels in its fleet.

Aframax sales

In March, Diamond Tanker offloaded its four aframax tankers — the 118,000-dwt Diamond Eternity and Diamond Destiny (both built 2011) and Diamond Bliss (built 2009), and the 114,000-dwt Diamond Faith (built 2016) — on an enbloc basis to Glyfada-based Ionic Shipping.

The Greek shipowner was reported to have paid between $112m and $115m for the quartet.

Diamond Tanker was established in 2005 to operate aframaxes mainly on what were buoyant Indonesia-to-Japan dirty trades as part of a Japanese overseas development aid scheme. The route was a pillar of the Asian aframax trades.

“The major shareholder of Diamond Tanker is the energy division of Mitsubishi Corp,” one shipping player said. “With the declining oil imports from Indonesia to Japan, it does not come as a surprise that Mitsubishi Corp is to make the decision and allow Diamond Tanker to exit shipping.”

One tanker player familiar with Diamond Tanker said the company was still in operation and keeping itself busy with chartering activities and freight trading.