Norwegian group Stolt-Nielsen is retaining most of its Stolt Tankers team as its small parcel tanker business merges with John T Essberger.
The two companies combined their fleets on 1 January, producing E&S Tankers, an operation of 48 chemical carriers of between 2,800 dwt and 11,300 dwt, run from Hamburg, Germany.
Stolt had initially given staff two weeks to decide whether they wanted to move from Rotterdam when the deal was agreed in November.
But since then, the shipowner has extended a transition period to 1 July. So far, no staff have applied to move to Germany, and there have been only three redundancies, which Stolt Tankers president Lucas Vos described to TradeWinds as "very limited".
Hiring freeze over
Staff retention has been made possible by the ending of a hiring freeze implemented during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic last year.
Vos said: "A lot of vacancies we didn't want to fill have now become available, so all the people then chose to stay with Stolt."
In the first week of operation, reaction from the market to E&S Tankers has been positive, he added.
"It's been a smooth process. Customers haven't noticed any real changes, which I guess is good news when you do an integration."
Ships being transferred
The joint venture only needed German regulatory clearance, which was granted as expected in December.
"It's up and running. We have delivered 10 of our 14 ships into the pool, and the other four are on other longer voyages, so it will take some time. So far it's going well," Vos said.
"There are always hiccups around systems and processes, which were expected and it's something that we can manage."
The new company has been born at a tricky time for the sector, however.
"Market conditions are clearly not favourable, with the lockdown in more European countries," Vos conceded.
Spot rates and spot cargoes are at low levels, he added, with volatility set to remain.
"Worldwide, we expect it to be as volatile as it is now, certainly for the first half, and then we expect to see some improvements."
Vos views the consolidation as "a good thing for the chemical market in Europe ... I expect other consolidations like this to take place".
Asked about further tie-ups for Stolt, he said: "We are not involved in talks. We want to give E&S a chance to become successful first."
And he said any future partnership talks would be carried out through E&S Tankers.
Vos did not want to speculate on other companies' consolidation efforts.
"But if I look macroeconomically at this market and the uncertainty that surrounds it, it would a good thing for the industry," he added.
E&S Tankers is focusing in particular on the Baltic, Mediterranean and north-western Europe.
Towards the end of last year, Norwegian rival Odfjell launched an MR chemical tanker pool with Navig8, before quickly adding seven Transportation Recovery Fund ships to bring the total to 19 vessels.
Chembulk, Team Tankers, Womar and Maersk Tankers were all also involved in cooperation deals in 2020.
