Columbia Group tanker pool management company United Product Tankers (UPT) has shut down operations after 21 years.
“In this environment of inflated values and strong competition, it has become increasingly difficult for smaller companies, such as UPT, to attract new business/clients or develop the business in general,” the company told TradeWinds in an email.
“It has therefore, unfortunately, been decided to wind down the whole of UPT within the first half of 2024,” it added.
The wind-down was “orderly and managed”, UPT said.
UPT was formed in 2003 as a joint venture between the Schoeller group and German peer Hartmann. Hartmann sold the tankers in the venture in 2012 and then sold its UPT shares to Schoeller.
Following the retirement of co-managing director Stefan Ciegelski in 2021, the firm had been jointly led by Matthias Schoeller and Christos Matarangas.
Matarangas left UPT a few months ago. According to his LinkedIn page, the company veteran has served since April as managing director of Limassol-based Kalydna Investments.
Other former employees’ LinkedIn statuses show their employment terminated in June or feature them as “open to work”.
The last time TradeWinds reported on UPT in June 2023, the company’s operated fleet had shrunk by nearly half within six months to 11 tankers.
That trend has continued amid soaring product tanker markets, prompting clients to think they could do without the company’s services.
“This has resulted in many customers taking advantage of this new environment and either disposing of their assets or looking at alternative trades,” UPT said.
“This is not an UPT-exclusive phenomenon but has affected all pool operators,” the company added, noting that “commercial pools in general have become less relevant”.
Another reason that led to the wind-down is the “aggressive” accumulation of vessels by major oil trading firms, through time charters at elevated levels that have turned them into ship operators in their own right, UPT added.
The reasons cited by the company are validated by other market developments and others whose comments TradeWinds sought.
In March, Maersk Tankers let go of 14 management staff. The giant pool operator features about 190 managed vessels on its website, down from the 240 it said it had when it acquired Penfield Marine in January.
“UPT was shrinking as are many pools out there,” one industry source told TradeWinds.
“It wasn’t economical to keep going and the owner probably decided to focus his energies on business that makes more money, like assets,” the source added.
Matthias Schoeller told TradeWinds in June 2023 that pools typically benefit from weaker markets when people try to find a home. “Higher markets don’t always serve that business model,” he said at the time.
Schoeller also mentioned that 2022 was the best year on record for the company, in common with many rivals.
UPT’s Matarangas added: “Fleet size fluctuating is common at the moment. Ships can come and go very quickly in this market.”
