French orders to foreign shipyards

66
Loading operation
of Touraine
39,000 cbm,
ex Nkossa II,
78,000 cbm at
Nkossa (Congo).
AP Moller and Exmar with the transfer, under time-charter
agreements, of the four AP Moller fully refrigerated
35,000 cbm ships to Exmar commercial management.
These various consolidations undertaken by major and
smaller shipowners result in a new LPG fleet structure
where the commercial management of the ships is organised
around each specific size, types of product and their trading
market areas.
The three main shipowning/operating groups are now
headed by :
• Bergesen DY for tonnage between 52,000 and 85,000
cbm (fully refrigerated type).
• Exmar for mid-size tonnage between 18,000 and
43,000 cbm (fully refrigerated type).
• AP Moller for the semi-pressure/fully refrigerated type
of tonnage between 8,000 and 20,000 cbm.
Such development means that besides the traders'
controlled tonnage - among which plays a major actor
owning some 30 ships ranging between 3,700 and
100,000 cbm - and captive area tonnage such as Indian,
Korean or Japanese tonnage, the shipowning offer of
tonnage in excess of 8,000 cbm is narrowing up to "one
owner per size ship".
Such consolidated structure should allow owners to offer
a better flexibility and service to their clients. But charterers
might be also disturbed by the scarcity of available shipping
partners, the same way as shipowners were worried
about the narrowing number of their potential clients.
Nevertheless, a vessel can trade worldwide with various
products whilst a charterer is usually committed to one
kind of product on a limited traffic area, with however
some flexibility given by product swaps or fob sales.
Without entering into a detailed review of the reasons of
such a situation - among which often remains the breakeven
level at which owners had to trade their ships -
we must expect several side effects such as:
• Ship end-users will have to secure their transportation
requirements with closer and sharper eyes, hopefully
with a greater confidence, a better understanding and
transparency towards owners' operational and financial
contingencies.
• They might also be tempted to try and find some independence
and study various ways and means of controlling
themselves their shipping operations, whether by operating
more time-chartered tonnage, acquiring ships, or as sometimes
seen on a tight shipping market, by contracting newbuilding
units, a move which could in turn have some
impact on the fragile demand/offer ratio if multiple and
similar actions are being taken simultaneously.
• Shipowners/ship operators should look at keeping a
reasonable pace for higher returns so as to avoid loosing
some of the confidence and partnership they have been
otherwise looking for.
The smooth balance between the above parameters is not
easy to reach, as conflicting interests are constantly fighting
for more and more short-term results and efficiency.
The border line between larger scale product marketing
and/or fleet control for a higher efficiency, and larger
scale control for immediate financial returns might be
a difficult path to follow in the near future when trying
to reach a steady and healthy equilibrium.