Does The Buy And Hold Strategy Still Work?

20 Feb 2026: The VLCC market is in the spotlight again In the tanker market it is always the VLCCs that catch the imagination.  For good reason.  They are very large (hence the name) and have very high earnings potential.  VLCCs earnings are also very volatile and over the lifetime of a vessel (20-25 years), daily earnings can (and will) fluctuate between $0 (zero!) and $100,000/day or more.  Prices of these assets, both for newbuildings, and, even more so for secondhand vessels are similarly volatile.  Oftentimes, the owners of large VLCC fleets are larger-than-life characters: Aristotle Onassis and Stavros Niarchos, (the “Golden Greeks”); Y.K. Pao and C.Y. Tung from Hong Kong, and Sigval Bergesen and Erling Naess from Norway all made their name (and fortune) in the 1970s.  Most recently, the shipping press is focused on Korea’s Sinokor Merchant Marine, led by Ga-Hyun Chung, who rapidly expanded his VLCC fleet following a massive acquisition spree in recent months.  Other legendary names that are still active in the industry include Fredriksen, Angelicoussis, Tsakos, Prokopiou and Marinakis.  Some VLCC owners are public companies, but many participants in this trade remain private, family-owned companies.  Most of them have been in business for generations.  In this tanker opinion, we would like to highlight the “buy and hold” strategy that have made many of these companies successful owner/operators throughout the cycle. Please fill out the form to read the article.