New York-listed tanker owner International Seaways has launched Aframax International, a joint venture pool with Chilean owner Ultranav.
According to a social media update by International Seaways, the joint venture will build upon more than 20 years of partnership on different vessel sizes. It will commercially manage all aframaxes of the two companies.
The company said that Aframax International will provide “safe, reliable transportation to customers worldwide, with an initial focus on the Americas. Both companies look forward to working with our close charterers in this expanding Aframax trade.”
Ultranav said in its fleet overview that it operates a fleet of 423 owned and chartered vessels. Of those 423, it has four aframax crude oil tankers. International Seaways has a diversified fleet of over 70 tankers, five of them aframaxes. That means that the new joint venture pool will manage nine aframaxes in total.
This is the second pool to emerge this year with Hafnia and Mercuria forming a panamax pool in January. These are just two examples of new tanker pools that have emerged over the past year or so while some existing pools got even larger.
VLCC pool operator Tankers International expanded with two ships from the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation and one from the Transportation Recovery Fund, Stolt Tankers and NYK agreed with Eneos Ocean to operate a new chemical tanker pool while Scorpio Commercial Management and Mercuria Shipping created a new aframax venture called Mercury Pool.
