Van Ommeren Clipper Shipping (VOC) is planning more handymax bulk carrier newbuildings and is considering configurations such as double skins and wide hatches.
"We are looking at various further options," says the company?s managing director Gary Vogel.
The company has already placed orders for three handymax bulk carriers with Japanese shipbuilders this year. In August it took a contract for one 52,500 dwt vessel at Oshima Shipbuilding and in May it placed a contract with Tsuneishi Shipbuilding for two 52,000 dwt ships. Both of the contracts involve vessels with "significant specification upgrades" to the yards? basic designs, says Vogel, although not double skins.
"We think that there?s a trade that these ships will be particularly suited to," says Vogel pointing specifically to the steel trade into the US east coast. "We are marketing them to clients that we think will get benefit."
The fact that double skins and wide hatches are being considered for the company?s next handymax newbuildings is an extension of this logic. There are benefits they will bring to specific trades that the charterer will accrue, says Vogel, even though a double skin ship will require paying a higher daily charter rate than for a single skin ship (to cover its greater newbuilding cost).
"The cost benefits [of a double skin ship] should come back to the charterer almost immediately," says Vogel.
VOC can say all this with some confidence as it is part of an ultra handymax pool ? formed earlier this year by VOC, Dockendale (based in the Bahamas), Clipper (Bahamas) and clients of Victoria Steamship (UK) ? in which six of the vessels are very high specification and incorporate a wide hatch, double-skin configuration. The new VOC ships will enter this pool on their completion.
The Oshima ship is due for delivery in the first quarter of 2004. VOC also has, as yet undeclared, options for two 55,000 dwt vessels at the same shipbuilder. The Tsunesihi ships are due from its shipyard in Cebu, the Philippines in the first and second quarters of 2004.
At present, the largest ships in the VOC fleet are the 40,908 dwt handymaxes Papendrecht and Pendrecht. The company has noted an upward trend in cargo size demand from charterers of handymax tonnage, hence the fleet renewal programme and the size of ships ordered.
Jo expands its chemical tanker fleet
Jo Tankers is expanding its fleet of chemical tankers. It has orders in place for three ships of its own, access to another ship in build through a pooling agreement with Italy?s De Poli Group and is committed to eight year charters of another two ships under construction in Japan.
The six ships, ranging in size from 16,000 dwt to 37,000 dwt, are scheduled for deliveries from next month (January) stretching into January 2004.
The first of these ships due, called Jo Kiri, is one of the two ships taken on time charter. The 19,500 dwt vessel was launched by its builder and owner, Watanabe Shipbuilding of Japan, in mid-October. The second ship taken on time charter, from the same builder and owner, is due in the second quarter of next year. It is, at 25,000 dwt, slightly larger than the first. Both vessels, though, have 28 stainless steel cargo tanks.
The first of the owned ships is also due in January next year, from Norway?s Kleven Flor? shipyard. It is a development on an earlier series of 37,000 dwt ships built for Jo Tankers by Kleven and Kvaerner.
It is followed by a 25,000 dwt vessel from Kitanihon Shipbuilding in May and a 30,000 dwt ship from the same builder in January 2004. These ships, like the chartered in ones, have 28 stainless steel cargo tanks. Jo has an option on another similar vessel from Kitanihon, which a spokesperson says is likely to be declared at some stage.
The De Poli ship is 16,000 dwt and has 25 stainless steel cargo tanks. It is scheduled for delivery from the De Poli shipyard in Italy in the first quarter of next year.
