Titan rid themselves of single-hulled giant TITAN TAURUS
Company wants less exposure to 'volatile' VLCC market


Hong Kong-headquartered Titan Petrochemicals Group
Limited announced yesterday that it has agreed to sell TITAN TAURUS, a single-hulled 254,991 dwt Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) built in 1992, to Korea Line
Corp. for a consideration of US$41 million.

The company said the sale of the vessel represent an unaudited gain of approximately US$7.88 million for Titan.

“To reduce our exposure to the volatile VLCC market, we announced on 28 March that we would convert four VLCCs to be used as floating storage and sell three VLCCs this year. As part of this plan we are announcing the sale of TITAN TAURUS,” said Mr. Barry Cheung, Chief Executive of Titan.

“With the increased age, maintenance costs for the VLCC are high. This disposal gives us a good opportunity to realize the residual value of the vessel as well. Overall, it is part of our growth strategy to diversify and improve the quality of earnings going forward,” he added.

After the disposal of TITAN TAURUS, the Group’s transportation division will operate nine VLCCs, with a total combined capacity of over 2.43 million dwt.

TITAN TAURUS (ex TITAN URANUS) was at one time the SINA owned by Tsakos Shipping & Trading. Prior to this she was the DIAMOND ECHO owned by NYK and was built in 1992 by Mitsubishi