VesselsValue.com has created a series of infographics looking at the most expensive live vessels and what they could buy you outside of shipping. The most expensive live vessel currently on the water is the Zarga – a 266,433 CBM QMAX LNG vessel, built in 2010 at Samsung and owned by Qatar Gas Transport Co.

VesselsValue compared this ship with some of the realt world alternatives $221.8million could buy you one and a half Gareth Bales, 13 12 carat pink diamonds or 49 Lamborghini Veneno Roadsters. Interestingly, the most expensive tanker in the world is not a VLCC but the Liberty Bay, a 115,000 DWT Aframax Tanker, built in 2014 at Aker Philadelphia and owned by SeaRiver Maritime.

This is because all Jones Act vessels carry a premium in the VesselsValue algorithm for the following reasons:

• To be Jones Act must be US built, owned, crewed, classed and flagged.
• The cost to build vessels in US (i.e. Aker Philadelphia) is 3-4 times as much than from top quality Korean or Japanese yard (due to higher labour costs etc)
• Additionally, Jones Act vessels operate in a protected market so generally experience much more stable and higher freight rates.
• Both these factors result in 2nd hand (and obviously newbuild) values of Jones act vessels being substantially higher than for non Jones act vessels of the same type, size, age. There are no US built VLCCs and the newest US built Suezmax is 2006, hence the most valuable tanker is the Liberty bay 2014 Aker built Aframax

Placing 2nd and 3rd in our highest valued tankers are also Jones Act vessels – the Polar Enterprise owned by ConocoPhillips and the Overseas Chinook by OSG. Selling this vessel on the current S&P market could result in enough money to buy:

1.8 Floyd Maywathers, 6.4 Super Puma helicopters or 23 minutes of advertising time in the Superbowl.

Get in touch with VesselsValue.com to find out more about how they provide a value everyday for individual ships, fleets or companies based on real market activity.
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