Tanker owner Frontline is bringing the rest of its voyage operations and accounting activities in-house and boosting the size of its traditionally small workforce.
Robert Hvide Macleod, chief executive of Frontline Management, says the clean fleet moved in-house at the start of 2017 and the larger crude fleet is to follow next month.
The company is one of a very few shipping outfits that still outsources voyage operations, he says, with most opting for in-house staff who work alongside chartering teams.
In common with the wider Fredriksen system, Frontline has traditionally kept staff levels to a minimum by outsourcing activities. But under the move, the outfit will add between 15 and 20 staff to its payroll in Europe and Singapore to oversee voyage operations and related functions.
“I believe that having it [operations] in-house with the teams working together using common systems will be beneficial to our company but also, importantly, to our customers,” Macleod said.
“We are also building our Singapore operation that will ensure excellent time-zone coverage across all our segments, so that our customers receive the highest-quality service. It is important for our operations people to be fully part of the Frontline team.”
While the executive describes the change as “fine-tuning”, it has led to market speculation that the outfit will cut its ties with third-party shipmanagers.
Macleod says Frontline will continue to outsource the technical management of the tanker fleet to leading party managers.
The Fredriksen system uses nine different third-party managers and Macleod stresses there are no plans to change this.
In addition, its spot VLCCs will remain with Tankers International joint venture VLCC Chartering. Spot suezmaxes will continue to be deployed via Suezmax Chartering, a joint venture with Diamond S Shipping and Euronav.
