Seacon Shipping has had a busy year since it went public, with big newbuilding deals and secondhand acquisitions to move into the tanker space.
The bulker company and third-party ship manager, headquartered in Qingdao, China, is estimated to have spent $637m on 18 newbuildings and more than $40m on three secondhand chemical tankers.
It has now set to work on finding long-term employment for many of the ships it has ordered and is eyeing a move into the gas business.
General manager Xin Man told TradeWinds that the series of transactions were planned before the company listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange on 29 March 2023.
“More people are paying attention to Seacon after the company went public,” he said. “For us, we are doing what we were doing before.”
He said his company has made some strategic moves in the past 12 months, including diversifying into tankers by acquiring secondhand ships and ordering a series of chemical and MR tankers.
Xin said the debut in the tanker segment will help to spread market risks and assist the company’s ship management business.
Seacon is said to be one of the largest third-party ship managers in China, handling about 230 vessels, including tankers, bulkers and gas ships.
Clients include Chinese leasing companies, shipyards, and domestic and overseas shipping companies.
Xin said part of the reason for fleet diversification is that Seacon does not want to be tagged as a “specific ship type” shipowning company, as that will not help in its ship management marketing.
Diversification into niche markets
“We are trying to diversify into some niche markets and learn to operate different types of ships. The reason is because we are seeing our clients are diversifying their fleet.”
Since Seacon went public, the company has ordered 18 newbuildings — seven bulkers, four MR tankers and seven 18,500-dwt chemical tankers.
Seacon has teamed up with China Shipbuilding Consulting Co — a subsidiary of China State Shipbuilding Corp’s trading arm, China Shipbuilding Trading Corp — in ordering the four 50,000-dwt product carriers at Chengxi Shipyard.
Xin said the methanol-ready but scrubber-fitted MRs have been fixed to Western oil majors.
As for the series of 18,500-dwt MarineLINE coated chemical tankers — six on order at Fujian Mawei Shipbuilding and one at Wuhu Shipyard — Seacon will operate three on the spot market when they are delivered.
“Seacon intends to charter out three to four chemical [tanker] newbuildings,” he said.
“Because the market [newbuilding] price is high now, we want to dilute this premium of the shipbuilding price within a certain period. So, we are looking at three to five years’ time charter contracts.”
The company said it has already received interest from potential charterers.
On the sale-and-purchase market, Seacon acquired two chemical tankers from UK-based Union Maritime on a sale-and-leaseback basis. It bought the 16,788-dwt Golden Jasmine (ex-Kenrick) and Golden Iris (ex-Enford, both built 2012) for $14m each.
It is also the buyer of the 17,000-dwt Chem Lyra (built 2009), which was sold last November. Seacon has renamed the tanker Golden Orchid and it is now on charter to ExxonMobil.
Xin said Seacon holds options for six additional chemical tanker newbuildings at Chinese shipyards.
He hinted that the company is likely to exercise these options, as it has already built up operating and chartering departments for the chemical tanker business.
Asked if Seacon is ready to advance into the gas sector, Xin said it is looking at dual-fuel vessels and is considering gas carriers.
“But the gas market is not as good as last year. If the market has the potential, we can either do secondhand or newbuildings gas carriers … it could be [very large ammonia carriers] or LNG ships.”
