Scorpio Tankers has agreed to sell three product tankers for a combined $180.5 million while committing roughly $415.6 million to four newbuilding contracts, doubling down on scrubber-fitted tonnage at both ends of the product tanker size spectrum.

The disposals cover the 2014-built MR product tanker STI Dama, sold for $37.5 million, and two scrubber-fitted LR2s: the 2014-built STI Elysees at $70.0 million and the 2015-built STI Veneto at $73.0 million. Scorpio expects all three sales to close before the end of 2026.

The prices signal where secondhand value now sits in the product tanker market. A ten-year-old LR2 fetching $70-73 million, with scrubbers installed, reflects the premium that exhaust-gas cleaning systems continue to command as owners position for persistent spreads between high-sulphur fuel oil and very low-sulphur fuel oil. For Scorpio, monetizing decade-old tonnage at those levels frees capital for a fleet that gets younger, larger and more fuel-flexible.

On the acquisition side, the company has signed for two scrubber-fitted LR2 product tankers at Jiangsu Hantong Ship Heavy Industry in China, priced at $72.8 million per vessel, with deliveries scheduled for October and November 2029. It has also contracted two scrubber-fitted VLCCs at Hengli Shipbuilding (Dalian), at $135.0 million each, for delivery in September and October 2028.

The newbuilding prices carry commercial weight beyond Scorpio's own fleet. At $72.8 million per LR2, the 2029-delivery order slots confirm that Chinese yards are holding firm on pricing for sophisticated product tonnage with a delivery window more than four years out. The $135 million VLCC tag at Hengli extends Scorpio's exposure into the crude segment, where the company already operates VLCCs and where orderbook dynamics remain a central question for rate sentiment.

For competitors and charterers, the deals sketch the shape of the product tanker fleet of the early 2030s. Scorpio is swapping vessels built in 2014 and 2015 for tonnage delivered in 2028 and 2029, extending fleet age advantages at a time when regulatory pressure on emissions and fuel efficiency increasingly favours modern, scrubber-equipped ships. Shippers of refined products on long-haul routes, where LR2s dominate clean trade lanes east of Suez, will face a counterparty with renewed capacity locked in through the end of the decade.

The staggered delivery schedule also matters for supply-side math. The VLCCs arrive a full year before the LR2s, meaning Scorpio's crude-carrying capacity grows first, in late 2028, followed by the product tanker additions in late 2029. Neither delivery window is likely to move markets on its own, but they add to a growing queue of tonnage due from Chinese yards in that period, which owners and analysts will watch as they weigh rate trajectories against fleet growth.

The net effect of the transactions is a modest near-term reduction in Scorpio's traded product tanker count, offset from 2028 onward by larger, more efficient tonnage. With $180.5 million in sale proceeds set against $415.6 million in newbuilding commitments, the company is funding the balance from its balance sheet and operating cash flow, continuing a pattern of opportunistic fleet renewal.

How the market absorbs the three sold vessels, and who the buyers are, will emerge as the deals close before the end of 2026.