In addition, Arcadia had reportedly contracted four Suezmaxes at HHI for 2016 delivery onwards.
Reports also indicated that Celsius Shipping had chosen Chinese shipyards Sainty Marine, Nantong Mingde Heavy Industry and Nantong Runde Ship Engineering to construct seven stainless steel chemical tankers.
The seven 24,600 dwt chemical tankers cost a total of $280 mill and they are scheduled for delivery between 2016 to 2017, reports indicated.
As part of the contract, Nantong Mingde Heavy Industry and Nantong Runde Ship Engineering will build the vessels, while Sainty Marine will purchase them, before reselling the series to Celsius Shipping.
Currently, Celsius Shipping operates six 19,000 dwt stainless steel chemical tankers.
Exxon Mobil Corp's marine affiliate, SeaRiver Maritime, has named the first of its two new US-flag Aframaxes ‘Liberty Bell’, at a ceremony held at Aker Philadelphia Shipyard.
Once delivered later this year, the two vessels will ship crude oil from Alaska North Slope to refineries along the US west coast. They will replace two existing double hull tankers.
Delivery of the second Liberty-class Aframax is expected by the end of this year.
In a lacklustre week on the charter market, Stena was believed to have fixed two of Ya-Sa Shipping’s Suezmaxes. The ‘Yasa Scorpion’ and the ‘Yasa Southern Cross’ were reported fixed at $18,000 per day for 12 months periods each.
Teekay was said to have fixed the Aframax ‘SN Claudia’ for 12 months at $15,750 per day.
Navios Maritime Acquisition Corp has confirmed that the ‘Nave Equinox’ and ‘Nave Pulsar’ have been chartered out to an unnamed interest for one year for $14,813 net per day, plus a $2,000 per day premium when vessels are trading in ice conditions.
The company said that the vessels are expected to generate around $6 mill of aggregate base EBITDA for the charter period assuming operating expenses remain at the current opex levels.
NORDEN was thought to have taken the MR ‘Unique Developer’ for 12 months in direct continuation at $14,600 per day, while BP was said to have fixed the Handysize ‘Maersk Elliot’ for 12 months at $13,750 per day.
Those reported as leaving the fleet include the 1994-built Aframax ‘Mire’ believed sold to Pakistan interests on private terms and the 39,700 dwt, 1989-built ‘Vegas’ also destined for Pakistan at $505 per ldt.