Wintermar Offshore Marine has entered into an offshore accommodation joint venture with another Indonesian shipowner.
The Jakarta-listed company has formed a 50/50 joint venture with Rajawali Perak Mulia to own and operate an accommodation work barge with a 300-passenger capacity.
The vessel is currently operating in Thailand and increases Wintermar’s fleet of 48 vessels supporting offshore projects in South East Asia.
In the first six months of 2024, the company invested in three other vessels worth $13.9m, of which two are newbuild heavy-load barges due to be delivered at the end of this year.
Wintermar said these investments would position its fleet in segments with expected higher demand in the coming years.
It said a big issue facing the offshore support vessel industry is the scarcity of new ships.
This is exacerbated by an ageing fleet, particularly among the larger vessels crucial for deepwater operations.
“These conditions make the market even tighter, pushing charter rates higher due to high demand and limited new vessel entries,” the company said.
Charter rates and sales drive profit up
Higher charter rates and vessel sales drove Wintermar’s first-half gross profits to $10.4m, up from $5.4m in the same period of 2023.
Total revenue rose steadily by 23% year on year to $38.3m, including a 42% increase in revenue from its vessel ownership to $27.2m.
“Revenue remained strong despite the sale of one platform supply vessel, one fast utility vessel and one anchor-handling tug during the quarter, reflecting the strength of the underlying market as higher charter rates were able to compensate for fewer operational vessels in Q2 compared to Q1,” Wintermar said.
OSV charter rates were, on average, 40% higher compared with the first half of 2023.
In June, Wintermar secured two-year contracts for two PSVs, at charter rates more than double the average rate in 2023 for similar vessels.
It said this was the first award of a long-term tender for PSVs in Indonesia in several years, boosting its backlog of contracts to $75m at the end of June.
