Euronav’s $96m per tanker move for four Metrostar ships started the ball rolling, with Tsakos Energy Navigation’s $97m each for two York Capital vessels also down on the previous last done.

“The market appears to be spooked by a flurry of recent negative data points surrounding VLCC values,” said analyst Spiro Dounis.

“We remain resolute in our belief that VLCC prices are strongly undervalued.