President Lucas Vos knows Stolt Tankers will face a decision on the rejuvenation of its chemical tanker fleet in the next few years.

The Stolt-Nielsen unit made a start on addressing its concerns over vessel age by sealing a deal to buy five 2016-built vessels from Peter Georgiopoulos’ Chemical Transportation Group (CTG) last August.

Vos said the group took delivery of the first, the 27,500-dwt Stolt Bismuth, in Curacao in the Caribbean late last week.

Three more are coming in January and one early in February. There have been no delays in their handover.

“We do know that clearly we have an older fleet and at a certain moment in time we need to take some decision on it,” Vos told TradeWinds.

Very complex

“If you look at our current fleet, it’s very specialised vessels. They’re a little bit over-engineered, very complex, and it makes it ­difficult for them to easily flow from one trade into another.

“The benefit of these [CTG] ships is that they can operate in more trades, so while we initially will focus on the Atlantic Basin and the Houston Gulf, they can go into ­different places.”

One vessel will make a first trip from Houston to the east coast of South America.

“Longer-term, in the next five years, there are 11 ships that we need to say goodbye to from our fleet,” Vos added.

Stolt Tankers president Lucas Vos says the company has taken delivery of the Stolt Bismuth — one of five 2016-built vessels it bought from Peter Georgiopoulos' Chemical Transportation Group last August. Photo: Stolt-Nielsen

He acknowledged that the age of the vessels “is a concern to us”, as ships get to the limit of their lifespan, and also because of their sustainability impact.

Clarksons lists the owner with 83 tankers, more than half of them dating from the 1990s and 2000s.

Vos said his company needs to make replacement plans for the 11 ships if it wants to keep capacity at what it is today, otherwise the owner would miss out on growth in the market.

Stolt is not yet sure whether 11 newer vessels will be needed, or whether the CTG ships will allow it to bring in fewer than that. “That’s still something we need to discuss,” Vos said.

No new orders

Stolt Tankers president Lucas Vos will have a decision to make on fleet renewal. Photo: Stolt-Nielsen

A return to shipyards is not currently a solution it is considering, however. “We are not looking at new orders,” he said, adding that its European parcel tanker joint ­venture partner John T Essberger might have different views on newbuildings, but that is a decision for the individual companies.

Brokers reported that Stolt was paying $27.5m per CTG ship, valuing the deal at $137.5m.

The company said the Chinese-­built vessels, which have stainless-steel sections, will trade in the Stolt Tankers Joint Service.

CTG ordered the ships as newbuildings in 2014, priced at around $40m each. The vessels had been trading in Odfjell’s chemical tanker pool.

Stolt-Nielsen’s carbon emissions reduction targets are in line with the industry, with a minimum 50% cut by 2030 and then heading to neutrality by 2050.

The aim is also to have one zero-carbon vessel operational by 2030, Vos told TradeWinds.

“The tech is not there yet to do all this. We can make a lot of statements and every shipping company can make a lot of statements, but we do not know what the future holds,” he said.

“It is interesting that Maersk has said it is not going to invest in LNG because they don’t think it’s the fuel of the future.”

Vos said this decision makes sense for AP Moller-Maersk, although Stolt-Nielsen has not yet reached a point at which it can make a similar pronouncement. “But I would tend to agree with them.”

The shipowner is in contact with experts to support projects developing new types of propulsion.

“It’s too early to give a definitive answer,” he said.

“I also don’t think we will be the lead on this — we will let others pioneer.”