Sweden’s Concordia Maritime has shelved its plans to convert one of its product tankers into a container ship, its chief executive said on Wednesday.
The Stena-controlled shipowner had sought to tap into the booming container market by investigating whether one of its seven 65,000-dwt P-Max ships could be converted into a feeder ship of 2,100 teu.
A full conversion had been anticipated to take between three and five months.
The study found that it was “technically feasible” to complete but increasing economic uncertainty made it difficult to reach an agreement with an end customer, said CEO Erik Lewenhaupt as he announced second-quarter results.
“We gave it our best and we tried,” he told analysts. “The potential is there but for now the project is on hold.”
Yards were contacted about the project and quotes were sought, but it was economically unworkable with the boxship orderbook reaching 30% of operational fleet size.
“However, we will leave no stone unturned in our efforts to increase both the return and value from our vessels wherever possible,” he said.
The project is not a new concept with the earliest container ships converted from oil tankers. Bulkers had also been pressed into carrying containers during the liner boom.
Concordia had to restructure its finances last year after a long period of depression in product tanker markets.
Long-serving chief executive Kim Ullman left at the end of 2021, to be replaced by Lewenhaupt.
The new chief executive announced a return to profit of SEK 35.7m ($3.4m) for the second quarter compared with a loss of SEK 89.7m in 2021.
Lewenhaupt said trade shifts caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, growing international demand for energy and Opec’s difficulties in scaling up oil production had led to a significant increase in tonne-miles and demand for tonnage.
“In the short to medium term, we believe this situation will persist,” he said.
The results were boosted with the sale of the 159,000-dwt Stena Supreme (built 2012) in the second quarter to buyers in Korea. VesselsValue estimated its worth at $37.5m.
