Singapore: Stena Bulk and Indonesia’s Golden Agri-Resources Ltd (GAR) have set up a new joint venture, Golden Stena Bulk. For a start, the 50-50 joint venture will take over four product tankers ordered by Stena Bulk in June 2012. The newly formed joint venture will also consider investing in more product tankers in the future.
The vessels will be deployed in Stena Weco’s logistic system in the global market. Stena-owned Northern Marine Management will be responsible for technical management.
In June 2012, Stena Weco – the joint venture between Stena Bulk and Danish Dannebrog – formed a 50-50 joint venture with GAR. The joint venture, Golden Stena Weco, was aimed at providing an overall solution for GAR’s international transportation of its palm oil products.
“Golden Stena Bulk can be seen as the second step in our collaboration with leading palm oil plantation company, GAR. For us, it’s also a gateway to Asia,” said Erik Hanell, president and ceo of Stena Bulk. “Such strategic partnerships are a well-tried concept for us and involve coordinating complementary assets, know-how and experience. With GAR’s robust network and intimate knowledge of the region, this strategic partnership gives us greater access to the Southeast Asian market as well as to local competence,” Hanell said.
Jesslyne Widjaja, vice president of corporate finance of GAR, said: “With our rapid growth, it is critical that GAR achieves maximum synergies by collaborating with best-in-class shipping partners to secure the safe and efficient transportation of our products.”
GAR is the world’s second largest palm oil plantation company with a total planted area of 459,500 hectares (including smallholders) as at 30 September 2012, located in Indonesia. It has integrated operations focused on the production of palm-based edible oil and fat. [04/02/13]
