A new Dutch venture — Elegant Exit Co — is planning to spend up to $100m in 2021 to buy an initial fleet of veteran tankers that it will trade for five to seven years before recycling at its own green facilities.

Former executives of Dutch-based W-O Shipping and Womar Pools are behind the start-up, which aims to build an annual "green steel" scrapping volume of up to 500,000 mt.