Lars Malmbratt, general manager of Stena Bulk Singapore, told Seatrade Maritime News that 2017 will be a difficult year, but the aim for the company is to enlarge its fleet during the market downturn.
“We have a positive view of the market further ahead from 2018 onwards, and we believe there will be a need for more tonnage in our fleet but an exact number on how many ships are needed is difficult to say,” Malmbratt said.
“It is up to the market to decide but we have no fresh orders for newbuildings right now as we believe there is no need to put additional tonnage in the waters,” he said, referring to the interest only in secondhand purchases.
“Moreover, newbuilding prices today are a little too high and not reflective of the rates in the spot market,” Malmbratt added.
Stena Bulk currently operates a fleet of 107 vessels on its own and in various joint ventures and pools, including 51 MR product tankers, 20 suezmaxes, 15 intermediate tankers (10,000 – 17,000 dwt), 10 p-maxes (65,500 dwt) and six shuttle tankers.
The company’s current newbuilding programme is its order for 13 IMOII MR tankers from China, with nine delivered and the remaining four deliveries stretching until early 2018.
Malmbratt pointed out that the new IMOII tankers have added to the versatility of the company’s MR fleet, and allowed it to take advantage of the flow of the light chemical methanol cargoes coming out of the US Gulf and going into Asia.
“In every cycle of the market there are opportunities and we try to act quickly on market movements. The goal ultimately is to be comfortable with your bottomline, and how many ships you operate is just a function to reflect the state of the market,” Malmbratt commented.
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