Wind installation project demand is driving up rates for big deck cargo vessels but niche shipowner Red Box Energy Services will not rush to build ships to take advantage of it.
Red Box chief executive and managing partner Philip Adkins is happy with his specialised ultra-high ice-class fleet of two.
And he suspects that the bottom could fall out of government policy-driven wind farm demand. But for the time being, that demand is making itself felt powerfully.
“Monopiles and jackets for wind farm projects are taking up a lot of deck space these days,” Adkins told TradeWinds. “For a ship of around 50,000 dwt and 180 metres by 43 metres, we are starting to see rates of $65,000 to $75,000 per day. Twelve months go that would have been $45,000 to $50,000 per day.”
Red Box’s 24,500-dwt Pugnax and Audax (both built 2016) are meant primarily for the energy project market, carrying LNG production modules, and in particular serving the Arctic segment within LNG. But the rising tide lifts even his specialised tonnage.
There are discounters in the heavy project cargo trade, and there are shipowners who Adkins finds too eager to place an order, and in both cases he points to the Chinese and the South Koreans.
That viewpoint may have something to do with Red Box’s recent success in a bitter legal fight to break up its joint venture with Chinese port equipment manufacturer ZPMC.
Adkins led Rotterdam-based Fairstar Heavy Transport before Dockwise acquired the Fairstar fleet and Adkins reassembled his old team under the Red Box banner. He said he has built eight heavy transport ships in his career, and he does not take newbuildings lightly.
But his company will remain focused on premium jobs. There is business he will say no to, and he is in no hurry to return to the shipyards.
“I’m a market demand-driven guy,” he said. “The Chinese and the South Koreans just want to build, but building ships is a huge undertaking. For now, I have two very valuable and employable vessels and I am content with those.”
