Low-key shipowner Union Maritime has taken delivery of a Japanese-built MR2 oil chemical-product tanker oil carrier it has agreed to take on charter for five years.
The Laurent Cadji-led company has fixed the 51,400-dwt PS New Orleans (built 2022) from private equity-backed Italian shipowner Premuda. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Union Maritime has a fleet of 68 vessels across the tanker, dry bulk, LPG and offshore markets, according to its website.
In late June TradeWinds reported that the UK-based company had been active in the secondhand market disposing of older aframaxes and acquiring more modern MRs.
The Maltese-flagged PS New Orleans was delivered from MinamiNippon Shipbuilding in Japan in mid-July, according to a posting on Premuda’s LinkedIn page.
The PS New Orleans is the third newbuilding project that Premuda has undertaken with Imabari Shipbuilding, which is a part shareholder in MinamiNippon.
In March 2020 it took delivery of the 51,000-dwt Yufu Crown (built 2020). It is on a seven-year charter to the Genoa-based shipowner and includes a purchase option.
Premuda, which is backed by private equity player Pillarstone, has taken the ship on charter from Japanese shipping company Shoei Kisen.
In April 2022, the Marco Fiori-led shipowner took delivery of the 51,400-dwt PS Imabari (built 2022) from MinamiNippon. The ship is also time chartered-in, according to Premuda’s fleet list.
The delivery ceremony for the PS New Orleans was attended by Marco Fiori and Premuda chief financial officer Enrico Barbieri, Union Maritime managing director Laurent Cadji as well as Pillarstone co-founder Gaudenzio Bonaldo Gregori and partner of the KKR-backed company Roberto Rondelli.
