Nordic American Tankers (NAT) recently revealed that it had signed a preliminary agreement to buy one modern double-hull newbuilding suezmax tanker.
The purchase price is approximately $55m and the first class vessel was delivered from a top Korean shipyard earlier this year.
NAT is expected have the suezmax delivered no later than May 15, 2013.
The shipowner has not mentioned about further details about the ship or the seller, but sources suggest the ship involved could be Almi Tankers’ 158,000-dwt Almi Sun (built 2013).
Meanwhile, according to Clarkson, the recent suezmax deal by NAT is the first suezmax resale since 2011 and its value turned out to have fallen by 18% from about $67.5m in 2011.
However, the shipbroker says this compares favourable with other sectors such as VLCCs and aframaxes which have seen declines of around 26% each over the same time.