Stena Bulk has taken advantage of this year’s dire charter rates for suezmaxes by chartering in six tankers to boost the strength of a suezmax pool it operates in a joint venture. The Swedish company has revealed today that it has taken the SKS Skeena, Istanbul, Almi Galaxy, Almi Voyager and Almi Sky, all on time charter.
The ships have headed into the Stena Sonangol Suezmax pool, which was established in 2005, and now has 25 vessels operating. The pool is operated in the form of a joint venture owned on a 50-50 basis by Stena Bulk and the Angolan state-owned oil company Sonangol.
“In what has generally speaking been a stable low market, we have recently seen opportunities to utilise our business model in the current market,” commented Erik Hånell, Stena Bulk’s president and CEO, who went on to reveal plans to grow the pool to around 30 suezmaxes soon with more chartered in tonnage.
Hånell claimed his pool was operating far better than most of his peers, saying in a release today: “We have been extremely successful and are one of the leaders when it comes to earnings, both compared with the index and with competing pools and suezmax fleets.”
