Vilma Oil has chartered a VLGC newbuilding from South Korea’s KSS Line in a deal worth at least $49.8m in gross earnings.
Industry sources said the Spanish trading firm has signed up for the 84,000-cbm vessel that KSS Line recently ordered at Hyundai Heavy Industries. It will charter the ship for at least five years, with options to extend for a further two years.
The rate is said to be $830,000 per month.
KSS Line was reported to have ordered the scrubber-fitted ship for $74m and is slated to take delivery in the first quarter of 2021. Its contract includes an option for one more VLGC.
Officials at the shipowner declined to comment on the charter. A Vilma Oil executive confirmed the transaction but would not discuss details.
Industry players think the deal is not “straightforward”.
“We understand Vilma Oil is taking part in the equity of the newbuilding,” one source said.
TradeWinds is told that Vilma Oil also holds a stake in a VLGC newbuilding that Norway’s Solvang ordered at HHI last year. The gas carrier is scheduled to roll out of dry dock in October.
“Vilma and Solvang have set up a special-purpose company to own the 80,000-cbm newbuilding. The ship is time-chartered out to Vilma,” the source said.
Growth path
A gas industry source described Madrid-based Vilma Oil as a small private company that is on a gradual growth path.
“Vilma Oil is not the most active LPG trader but it has entered some contracts of affreightment and it is lifting cargoes regularly out of [the] US,” the source said.
Vilma Oil, founded in 1996, trades more than four million tonnes of petroleum products per year, including LPG, naphtha, gasoil and fuel oil.
Gas players said the newbuilding deal is the first time it has worked with KSS Line.
A conservative player that is known to book only newbuildings with charter contracts in hand, KSS Line is listed with a fleet of eight VLGCs on the water with an average age of five years. They are time-chartered out to international players, including Shell, Itochu, Petredec, E1 and Vitol for five years or more.
KSS Line controls a fleet of 27 vessels: 15 LPG ships, four LNG carriers and eight chemical tankers.
In March, it joined forces with HHI to develop its next generation of VLGCs, signing a memorandum of understanding with the Ulsan shipyard to cooperate on ships of 84,000 cbm and 90,000 cbm. The new designs are aimed at enabling charterers to save costs.
