Who Bought Scorpio’s Old Tankers at Newbuild Prices?
Nineteen ships in seven months, $1.01bn. The last four averaged $71.45m against a $70.7m newbuild book. Seven have no named buyer.
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A product tanker company sold a fifth of its fleet this year and its chief executive told analysts the last four went for more than newbuildings on his own order book. Nobody in the room asked him about it.
Emanuele Lauro said it in prepared remarks on Thursday morning, between the profit figure and the fleet update, and it went past the room without a hand going up. Nineteen tankers, most of them eleven or twelve years old, sold this year at prices he says are above what Scorpio paid for them more than a decade ago. The last four, all LR2s, sold for more than LR2 newbuildings the company has on order. Seven analysts then asked him about freight rates.
📋 In This Issue:
🛢️ The Story:
The sentence nobody picked up, the nineteen ships, and the seven hulls with no buyer on the record
📊 By The Numbers:
The scale of the sell-down and the collapse behind it
🔍 Why It Matters:
What changes for the owner, the broker, the charterer, the financier and the yard
👀 What To Watch:
Six signals that decide whether this was the top
🚨 Gosships Signal:
What a price inversion actually tells you
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Related Coverage
📌 Gosships Data Card
December 2025 to February 2026: Scorpio orders two LR2 newbuildings at Dalian Shipbuilding at $70.8m each for 2027, then declares options on two more at the same yard at $68.5m each for 2029 (Scorpio Tankers)
Q1 2026: Four scrubber-fitted LR2s sold for $223.3m in disclosed prices, producing a $65.9m gain (Scorpio Tankers)
April to May 2026: $605.0m of convertible senior notes issued in two tranches, $375.0m and $230.0m, with 1,994,236 shares repurchased at an average $77.72 in privately negotiated transactions alongside the closings (Scorpio Tankers)
Q2 2026: Ten vessels close for $465.0m in disclosed prices, six MRs at $35.0m each, three LR2s at $65.0m and one at $60.0m, and $389.1m of unscheduled prepayments retire five secured facilities (Scorpio Tankers)
July 2026: Five further vessels close for $320.8m, four LR2s at $285.8m in aggregate and one MR at $35.0m, and an LOI is signed for two LR2 newbuildings at $72.8m each (Scorpio Tankers)
July 30, 2026: Q2 results show net income of $387.5m, of which $154.1m is gain on vessel sales (Scorpio Tankers)
Sources: Scorpio Tankers Q2 2026 results release and Form 6-K, July 30, 2026; Scorpio Tankers Q1 2026 results release, May 5, 2026; Scorpio Tankers Q4 2025 results release, February 12, 2026; Scorpio Tankers Q2 2026 earnings call transcript, July 30, 2026; TORM plc Q1 2026 results release, May 13, 2026; Splash247, May 25 and July 30, 2026; Manifold Times, June 2, 2026; Allied Shipbroking, Compass Maritime, Banchero Costa, Intermodal and Xclusiv Shipbrokers weekly reports, July 2026; Compass Maritime weekly report, April 27, 2026; BIMCO, July 13, 2026; Hayfin Capital Management; Seatrade Maritime, July 31, 2026; StockAnalysis, MarketBeat and StockStory, July 30 and 31, 2026; vessel records from MarineTraffic, VesselFinder, MagicPort, MaritimeOptima and Vesseltracker, checked July 31, 2026; Greek shipping press and IMO company records for Sea Trade Marine SA.
🛢️ The Story
There are numbers that only make sense if you already know something. A second-hand ship selling above a newbuilding is one of them.
The Sentence Nobody Picked Up
Lauro’s line came in prepared remarks, not under questioning, which means it was meant to be heard. “Since the beginning of the year, we have sold 19 vessels, most of them 11 or 12 years old, at prices above what we originally paid for them more than a decade ago.” Then the part that matters: “As a point of reference, the last four sales, which were all LR2s, were completed at prices above the cost of the LR2 newbuildings we currently have on order.”
Check that against his own numbers, because the claim is narrower than it sounds and stronger than it looks. The four LR2s that closed in July went for $285.8m in aggregate, an average of $71.45m a ship. Scorpio has six LR2 newbuildings on order, at three different prices. Two were ordered at Dalian Shipbuilding in December 2025 at $70.8m each for 2027. Two more came at the same yard in February, options declared at $68.5m each for 2029. Two are at Jiangsu Hantong at $72.8m each, on a letter of intent signed in July, also for 2029. The six average $70.7m.
So the eleven and twelve-year-old ships cleared above four of the six and below two, and about $750,000 above the average of the whole order book. Lauro’s sentence holds, and it holds against more of his own book than the wording implies.
Note where it stops holding, because the restriction is the point. The three 2014-built LR2s that closed in the second quarter went for $195.0m together, $65.0m a ship on the release’s own grouping, and the 2015-built STI Solidarity at $60.0m. Every one of those is below every newbuilding Scorpio has contracted. The four that cleared $71.45m were agreed on May 27 and closed in July. Scorpio does not disclose when the earlier sales were agreed, so that interval is not on the record, but one comparison is, and it is the sharpest number in the file. On December 16, 2025 Scorpio agreed to sell STI Goal and STI Gallantry, both built in 2016, for $52.3m each. On May 27 it agreed to sell four ships built in 2014 and 2015 for $285.8m, an average of $71.45m a ship. Five months apart, older steel, thirty-seven percent more money. That is what “the last four sales” is doing in Lauro’s sentence.
The wider market says the same thing, and it says it in four different brokers' price tables. Allied Shipbroking’s July marks put a ten-year-old Aframax at $72.5m against a $75.0m newbuilding, Compass Maritime at $73m against $78m, Xclusiv at $73.0m against $78.0m on a South Korean basis, and Banchero Costa has a Chinese-built coated LR2 newbuilding at $71.8m. Resale tonnage is trading between 18.6 and 28 percent above newbuilding across three of those four tables. That is the inversion, and it is not one analyst’s opinion.
The cleanest test is a transaction, not a table. In June the 2015-built, 110,000 dwt LR2 Seriana sold to India’s GESCO for $72.0m on prompt delivery, one month after Scorpio’s four were agreed. Scorpio’s blend of two 2014s and two 2015s at $71.45m is not a premium and not a discount. It is the market, and the market for an eleven-year-old ship is now a newbuilding price. Read that alongside what a newbuilding actually costs to book: J.P. Morgan and Aegean Shipping each contracted 115,000 dwt tonnage at Chinese yards at $73.5m in June, for 2028 delivery. A hull built in 2014 and a hull that does not exist yet are priced within a few dollars in a hundred of each other, and only one of them can load a cargo before 2028.
He framed it as fleet renewal. “This reflects our philosophy on fleet renewal, realizing attractive values from older assets while reinvesting in more fuel-efficient vessels that will strengthen the fleet for many years to come.” That is a fair description of what the company did. It is not a description of what the price means.
Seven analysts took questions afterwards. Omar Nokta of Clarksons Securities asked about LR2 and Aframax fungibility. Chris Robertson of Deutsche Bank asked about long-haul routes. Ken Hoexter of Bank of America asked where the floor is. Stephanie Moore of Jefferies asked about structural change in LR2s, then about convertible dilution. Sherif Elmaghrabi of BTIG asked about time charter renewals. Liam Burke asked about refinery redistribution and MR fleet age. Kristoffer Skeie of Arctic Securities asked about the VLCC joint venture.
Not one asked why a company whose chief executive had just called the quarter the strongest in its history has sold a fifth of its fleet.
Nineteen Ships In Seven Months
The scale is easy to miss because Scorpio never totals it. Four vessels went in
