The private Scorpio Group is continuing to fatten numbers in its product tanker pools with the addition of four ships from Eastern Pacific Shipping, Shipping Corp of India (SCI) and Naviera Elcano of Spain.
Naviera Elcano is contributing two product carriers to Scorpio's Handy Plus Pool (HPP), which was established for handymax tankers 15 years and older: the 33,800-dwt Castillo de Monterreal (built 2002) and 30,600-dwt Castillo de Trujillo (built 2004).
Monaco-based Scorpio founded HPP in April, with designs on exploiting a market niche for older tonnage.
Some 37% of the world's handymax fleet is aged 15 years or more, with 33% between 15 and 20 years of age, Clarksons data indicated at that time.
A further 36% was between 11 and 14 years of age, with a newbuilding orderbook representing only 2% of the fleet.
Eastern Pacific has doubled its contribution to the Scorpio LR2 Pool by adding the 110,000-dwt Atlantic Blue (built 2021). This follows the entry of sistership Atlantic Gold, which was announced in June.
Scorpio also added SCI to its LR1 pool with the 73,400-dwt Swarna Kaveria (built 2010).
The additions continue a growth campaign started by the Scorpio pools in mid-2020.
Scorpio's LR2 pool is now up to 52 vessels, the second-largest after the 73-strong MR pool. The Monaco-based outfit has 31 ships in its conventional handymax pool besides the 15 in the spin-off for older tonnage. Scorpio also runs 14 LR1s.
“From a pool perspective, we continue in our effort of expansion and consolidation by always keeping our fundamental objectives on sight of top performance and interest alignment with all our pool partners," said Ugo Romano, Scorpio's Dubai-based pools director.
“Consolidation offers the opportunity to leverage on scale, allowing platforms like our pools to optimise cost and maximise revenues, giving the owners and operators a valid alternative of employment from spot or fixed time charter employment."
Controlled by the Lolli-Ghetti family, the Scorpio Group backs New York-listed Scorpio Tankers, the world's largest product tanker owner with 130 ships.
