SHIPoWneRS
Stena bulks up S
Plans for niche panamax tanker pools
weden-headquartered Stena Bulk has floated ambitious plans to expand its fleet by more than 30 ships through forging partnerships over the next two
years, a senior company official said. Privately-owned Stena Bulk is eyeing to take in
12 suezmaxes from July 2011 to 2013 into its tanker pool joint venture with Angola-based shipping firm Sonangol. “Stena Bulk will take seven deliveries and Sonangol will take five, increasing our fleet from today's 18 vessels to 25 by the end of this year and 30 by the end of 2013,” Erik Lewenhaupt, general manager and head of Stena Bulk Singapore tells Seatrade. In its panamax operation, Stena Bulk is looking
to partner with one to two owners to create a “niche pool structure.” “We currently have four panamaxes and we
would like to grow to 10-12 vessels with potential partner/s,” Lewenhaupt says, adding that he hopes to establish this new partnership within the next one to four
months.The four panamaxes are currently doing short-haul trades in the Far East, and he believes the market in Asia can accommodate a couple more vessels. “But we have to be very careful about
oversupply as it is a niche market compared to aframax which is a big market,” he
cautions.The global panamax market is currently running with roughly 30 ships, giving Stena Bulk about 13% of the total market share. Its competitors in the Far East include Cosco and China Shipping. Stena Bulk's aframax operation, however, is
unlikely to take a foothold in the Asian market in the immediate future. “We don't have any [aframax] ships out in the
Far East since about a year ago.We moved four ships out from this region to the west as our earnings were battered and the market here is just too depressed,” he explains. Stena Bulk's current fleet of nine aframaxes are
on spot charters running in the Baltic Sea and North Sea.“We will at some point like to return to the Far East. But this will depend on the number of barrels going to the US west coast from Eastern Russia,” he says. He says that if movements on this trade route
increase, they will tighten up some tonnage in the rather oversupplied aframax market in Asia. The biggest segment for Stena Bulk is the
medium range (MR) product tankers,where it has recently completed acquiring 50% stake in Danish shipping firmWeco, allowing Stena Bulk to infuse Weco's 15 product tankers into its MR
fleet.The new StenaWeco collaboration aims to further boost its MR fleet to 45 by the end of this year,with a greater focus on cargoes of edible oils, according to Lewenhaupt. “Our aim is to consolidate the fragmented
MR
market.This is the segment where we will see the biggest increase in tonnage that will give us a worldwide coverage,” he says. Meanwhile, the biggest challenge for Stena
Bulk has been and will continue to be bunker costs.“Ships carrying dirty cargoes that require heating are more vulnerable because of the cost of maintaining the heat,” Lewenhaupt says.“Even if you are carrying clean products it is a big problem as bunker costs keep on increasing.” He notes that slow steaming is currently the best
possible solution to combat rising bunker fuel prices. Slow steaming speed would need to be customised according to the requirements of different ships on different voyage, and determined by the daily bunker market price fluctuations. “Overall I think slow steaming is definitely here to
stay as I don't see crude oil or bunker fuel prices coming off substantially in the near future, and there's nothing pointing in that direction,” he says. He highlighted that Stena Bulk's inhouse
designed MAX-concept ships can reduce bunker consumption while at the same time carry more cargoes with their wider body lengths. The company has to date designed and built
three vessel types in accordance with the MAX- concept:V-Max,C-Max and P-Max. It is also model-testing a new 15,000 dwt E-
MAXair, designed to cut bunker usage by up to 30%, scheduled to be built in two years' time, Lewenhaupt
said.As at the end of March 2011, Stena Bulk has a fleet of around 95 vessels in four business segments – suezmax, panamax, aframax and MRs.
Seatrade Singapore Report 2011 11
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