The Oldendorff and Abe families are behind a new aframax pool that has its sights set on operating a fleet of up to 30 crude tankers.
The N2Tankers pool has been formed by Reederei Nord and Nissen Kaiun Co’s shipmanager Synergy Marine and will oversee a modern fleet of 13 Japanese-built crude aframax tankers.
We believe we have accumulated a critical mass and were looking for another strong owner who might share our vision of a no-nonsense owners pool concept
The operation will be run out of Amsterdam and Singapore and is conducting talks with potential partners that could grow the operation to between 20 and 30 vessels.
Crude tankers
Nord has entered seven of its own crude aframax tankers into the pool, including five which were previously in Heidmar’s Sigma Tankers pool.
Katsuyo Abe-led Nissen, which is one of the largest private shipowning companies in Japan, will contribute four vessels that are commercially and technically managed by Rajesh Unni-led Synergy Marine Group.
Two more newbuildings, believed to be under construction for Nissen Kauin at Tsuneishi Zosen for delivery early next year, take the total up to 13 vessels of between 104,000 dwt and 112,000 dwt.
Nord pulled its crude aframaxes from the Sigma pool last year in order to establish its own management unit.
“We believe we have accumulated a critical mass and were looking for another strong owner who might share our vision of a no-nonsense owners pool concept,” said a spokesperson.
Europe and Asia
Nord will handle the commercial and technical operations from its Amsterdam office, while Singapore-based Synergy will handle the business west of Suez.
The idea is to run the pool as an “owners organisation”, meaning cost sharing and optimisation of commercial product.
He confirmed that talks are underway to grow the fleet with “other shipowners positioned like we are: good tonnage, good operations and solid balance sheets”.
While there were no set targets for the number of ships, a fleet of around 20 or 30 ships is deemed “a good ballpark figure” to aim for, the spokesperson said.
“If you go beyond that, some pools have lost their edge.”
The move is the latest phase of consolidation for Nord, which runs pools in the container sector for 1,700-teu vessels and dry sector for handysize bulkers.
These are managed by Hamburg-based Hanseatic Unity Chartering (HUC), which has around 250 dry ships under commercial management.
But Nord has no plans to establish a pool for its product tankers, which remain with Straits Tankers in Singapore. It is focusing its attention on investments made in the recent past.
Pool revenues will be split on conventional methods. “We won’t try reinvent the wheel,” he said.
