Hafnia and Mercuria will switch 10 clean tankers into the dirty trade as they begin their pool partnership.
The Singapore shipowner and the Swiss trader said on Friday that they will start the Hafnia Panamax Pool in March with 10 vessels of an average age of 13 years initially.
The idea is to provide the dirty panamax market with an “injection” of more modern tonnage to ensure safe, efficient transport of crude and other dirty oil products, TradeWinds is told.
TradeWinds understands the plan is to convert 10 clean-trading LR1s for the business.
Hafnia told TradeWinds it is contributing seven ships. Mercuria will add three time-chartered LR1s.
The Swiss group has eight LR1s under charter, so it could consider adding further ships to the pool.
There are no plans for newbuildings “for the time being”, a Hafnia spokeswoman said, adding that the two groups have had an “excellent commercial relationship for over a decade”.
“However, this is the first time Mercuria and Hafnia have engaged this closely and in this kind of agreement,” she said.
Brokers have reported Mercuria building its chartered fleet with a six-month deal to take the 108,900-dwt LR2 Blue Integrity (built 2009) for six months at $42,500 per day from Estoril Navigation of Greece.
Boost for an ageing fleet
Mercuria is run by Marco Dunand, its co-founder and chief executive.
The pooled panamax fleet will be run from the companies’ US, European and Asian offices.
Hafnia has 10 panamax-sized LR1s built between 2008 and 2017.
Geneva-based Mercuria is listed as owning a suezmax and a small clean tanker.
Hafnia already runs pools for handysize, chemical tanker, LR2, MR and specialised smaller tonnage.
The panamax tanker fleet is dwindling as owners look to the economies of scale offered by the bigger aframax and LR2 vessels.
Clarksons lists just 74 crude panamaxes of between 55,000 dwt and 85,000 dwt remaining in the world fleet, most dating from before 2010.
There are three ships on order. Two of these have been contracted by China Cosco Shipping and one by Russia’s Rosneft.
There are 380 clean LR1s of the same size in the fleet, with 31 on order.
