Malaysia’s top shipping line MISC is in the market for secondhand crude tankers, so long as they can be backed by charter contracts.
Yee Yang Chien, MISC’s new ceo, held a recent briefing session with analysts at which he talked about the current bouyancy in the crude tanker sector, which has seen VLCC rate top $100,000 a day in the past week.
“The message was to expect MISC to pursue asset growth opportunities in the next one to two years, in addition to benefiting from the ongoing strength in tanker rates,” wrote CIMB Securities analyst Raymond Yap.
Yap also reported that MISC is also looking at buying charter-backed floating production storage offloading (FPSO) units.
Despite the bullishness from the MISC boss, CIMB’s Yap warned: “However, we think MISC may be constrained by its ability to find, negotiate and secure deals with charterers, as well as the time-consuming process of negotiating shipbuilding contracts or secondhand purchases. Although MISC believes that tanker rates can remain strong for two to three years, we think rates may come under downward pressure from 2H16, which could change the dynamic of charter negotiations.”
