Norwegian Car Carriers (NOCC) has secured long-term employment for one of its two $65m newbuildings from Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries.
The 6,500-car-equivalent-unit (ceu) Liberty Passion (built 2017) has been fixed for up to eight years on a bareboat charter by US-based Liberty Global Logistics, confirms NOCC chief executive Olav Sollie.
“We are not losing money on the deal and are satisfied with the terms,” he said, while not disclosing the rate.
NOCC takes delivery of a sistership from the yard in March, but it remains unfixed. “We are talking to several potential charterers, including Liberty,” Sollie said.
NOCC is a tonnage provider and mostly fixes out its ships on time charters to the big car carrier operators.
It has been scaling down its fleet as it concentrates on larger and newer ships. Last year, it sold the 4,287-ceu NOCC Puebla (built 1999) and NOCC Pamplona (built 2000) to Cosco for $32.5m in total. It now has seven ships, all but one wholly owned.
NOCC is working on plans to expand. Sollie says it has an open mind as to whether this should be secondhand ships or newbuildings.
The company, like other owners in the car carrier business, faced a challenging year in 2016 and had to write down the value of ships. NOCC says its operating result is fairly satisfactory but it is too early to say how the results will end up.
NOCC was acquired by Tom Erik Klaveness-controlled Klaveness Marine and JP Morgan in 2014 and taken private.
