Odfjell SE Annual Report 2012

chemical transportation
and storage
Chemicals are an integral part of modern life, and our
societies and most industries now depend on products
derived from such commodities. The sector has enjoyed
solid growth worldwide for many years. Developing economies
around the world are now fuelling major increases
in both consumption and production of chemicals.
The largest chemical segment, both in terms of total
volumes and product diversity, is the petrochemicals.
Historically, the production of petrochemical products was
based in the US and Europe. Gradually production capacity
has been growing in the Far East, South America, South
Africa and particularly in the Middle East. In recent years,
China has developed into a major chemical producer and
gradually also an exporter. New plants in these regions are
mostly designed for the production of base chemicals or
‘building blocks’, whilst the production of derivatives and
speciality chemicals is still mostly concentrated in the US
and Europe. However, manufacturing companies in the
Middle East are investing in developing their business in
the direction of further down- streaming.
Chemical production facilities have traditionally been
located in areas with easy access to raw materials.
Historically, much petrochemical production was coalbased.
Naphtha, a derivative from crude oil refining, is
another raw material that is widely used, particularly in
Asia and Europe. Ethylene and propylene, the two main
building blocks for the chemical industry can be derived
both from naphtha and from natural gas. New plants are
being built in areas where natural gas is readily available,
which explains the massive increase in production capacity
in the Middle East and in recent years also in the US.
The petrochemical industry is truly international with both
production and consumption in all regions of the world,
and many petrochemical companies have become global
in their market approach. As a result, the petrochemical
industry has a constant demand for logistics service
providers capable of offering different types of storage
and transportation. As of today, only a limited number of
logistics service providers operate globally. Some specialise
in one type of service, for instance bulk liquid storage. Most
shipping and storage companies operate locally or within
a certain region, and there are only a limited number of
companies with the ability to offer a multiple of different
services on a global basis.
Odfjell is one of few companies offering a worldwide network
of both bulk shipping and storage services. Operating
through offices at central locations around the world, Odfjell
is a major player in the chemical tanker segment operating
in all major trade lanes. Whilst chemical tankers only
represent a small percentage of the total world fleet of
ocean-going tankers, for which the main cargo is crude
oil, there is nevertheless a considerable interplay between
different tanker segments. As far as the chemical tanker
market is concerned, handysize and medium range product
tankers have an impact in the 35–50,000 DWT size range
employed for carriage of clean petroleum products such
as naphtha, gasoline, diesel and gas oil.
Chemical tankers are generally designed and constructed
for handling a multiple of different types of cargoes
simultaneously and as such combines different customers’
requirements under single voyages. Different customers’
products are always kept segregated. Chemical tankers
are often split into two different categories; ships with all
or the majority of cargo tanks made of stainless steel or
ships with only coated tanks.
Ships with coated tanks are typically engaged in carriage of
commodity-type chemicals, clean petroleum products and
vegetable oils. Important trades for coated chemical tankers
are with full loads of commodity-type chemicals from
Northwest Europe, the US or the Middle East to different
destinations in the Asia/Pacific region. Backhaul cargoes
are often vegetable oils, molasses or clean petroleum
products to Europe or the US.
Ships with cargo tanks made of stainless steel are often
built to handle a higher number of different products. These
organic chemicals
raw materials
Coal
Gas
Crude oil
›
basic products
›
Derivatives
›
BTX
EDC
Ethylene
Styrene
Propylene
Glycol
Methanol
MTBE
Butadiene
Industrial alcohols
Polyester
End products
Paint
Fibres
Plastics
Detergents
Oil additives
Rubber
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odfjell annual report 2012