Belgium’s Euronav has announced rising profits and says it has finished shaking out older vessels with the sale of a 12-year-old VLCC.

The Saverys family’s US and Brussels-listed shipowning giant logged net earnings for the second quarter of $184.4m, up from $161.8m in the same period of last year.

Results were helped by a huge $79m gain from the sale of three old VLCCs to Sinokor, as TradeWinds has reported.