Four VLCCs head for recycling but it is not the beginning of a tanker scrapping charge

Four elderly VLCCs have been reported sold for recycling on the Indian subcontinent.

Tanker sources believe the deals do not suggest a wider VLCC purge of tonnage as shipowners operating in the open markets are still resistant to demolition sales.

The recent histories of the 300,000-dwt tankers Hapon (built 1996), Peron (built 1997) and Penny H (built 1996), as well as the 291,000-dwt Spirit (built 1998), tick all the boxes for vessels engaged in sanctions-busting trades.