Chemical tanker Odfjell expects to finance 5 new vessels by lease arrangements
16/06/2017 10:00
OSLO, June 16 (Reuters) - ** Chemical tanker firm Odfjell ODF.OL has signed a term sheet with private equity fund Chemical Transportation Group Inc to acquire the last 5 of a total newbuilding order of 10 x 25,000 dwt vessels with 24 stainless steel tanks from Chinese ship builder AVIC Dingheng ** Each vessel costs $40 million and are scheduled for delivery from June 2017 through May 2018 ** CFO Terje Iversen in Odfjell says probably it will finance the vessels by lease arrangements with fairly high gearing ** CFO says chemical tanker market is tough now but the firm is optimistic for longer term ** CFO: "If we calculate cost price and what we have been trading these kind of vessels over a longer period and in the current market, its a very good investment, and even better if the market improves" ** CFO: The market normally slows down in summer time, in June and July, so far in June it's stable, neither up or down ** CFO: We believe the timing is good and we could consolidate the market. We get a more optimal fleet without supplying more vessels in the market ** CFO: We will be careful to add more vessels to our fleet ** CFO: We ordered a lot of bigger chemical tanker vessels last year and with the transaction today we are getting closer to an optimal size relative to our current platform ** CFO: Generally in the chemical tanker market there has been little new ordering activity lately ** Chemical Transportation Group Inc will place its remaining 5 vessels in a commercial pool managed by Odfjell (Reporting By Ole Petter Skonnord, editing by Terje Solsvik) ((olepetter.skonnord@thomsonreuters.com; 0047 23 31 65 97;)) Keywords: ODFJELL SE SHIPPING/