FSL Trust Management Pte, the trustee manager of First Ship Lease Trust, has sold two container vessels for US$10.8m as it failed to find further employment for the boxships in an already oversupplied market.

Ever Radiant and Ever Respect are Japanese-built, 4,229teu containerships built in 1994 and 1995 respectively.

The two vessels have been on bareboat charter to Taiwanese Evergreen Marine Corporate Ltd, with the lease finishing at the end of this month.

"Despite the trust's best efforts, given the current container market environment, further employment for the vessels could not be found and the decision to dispose of them was taken swiftly to protect unitholder value. The proceeds will be primarily used to reduce the trust's outstanding debt and scheduled debt repayments going forward," says Alan Hatton, CEO of FSLTM.

Just more than US$8m of the proceeds from the disposal of the vessels will be applied to the outstanding loan facility, subsequently reducing the trust's quarterly loan repayment by approximately US$320,000 from the first quarter of 2016.

The trust said that the sale will incur a loss on disposal of US$4.2m across the two vessels in the first quarter of 2016, following a writedown in the fourth quarter of 2015 of approximately US$1m.