With the heavy and specialised cargo market recovering, major players such as Singapore's AAL are optimistic about the future and have begun to expand their fleets by buying or ordering dual-fuel vessels.
AAL is part of Schoeller Holdings, a sister company of Columbia Ship Management. With eight new vessels currently on order, AAL is building a fleet to capitalise on the dividends of a market that is set to remain strong over the next few years. The company, which focuses on the Asia-Pacific and Australian markets, is forecasting strong growth in the market going forward, despite freight rates being down about 30 per cent from their peak during the epidemic.
After a trough in January, spot prices have climbed again, with the Toepfer Index standing at around US$12,600 in June.AAL's Director of Shipping, Felix Schoeller, noted, ‘This is still a fairly solid level, what we call the new normal. It is a charter rate and freight rate level that is favourable to both shipping companies and customers. The outlook is actually positive, we are seeing good GDP growth and projects for the next two to three years look good.’
The key driver of the speciality and heavy lift cargo market is the energy sector, as a regular visitor to the industry, whose needs include transporting irregularly sized machinery and equipment, wind turbines or entire platforms. The current market is unique in that both green energy and fossil fuel companies are ordering transport services. This is largely due to the fact that although green energy has come a long way in the last few years, oil and gas production is once again surging as the world still needs fossil fuels.
AAL plans to expand its office in Dubai. In addition to its Singapore headquarters, AAL has offices in the United States, Germany, the United Arab Emirates (Dubai), China, South Korea, Japan and Australia, with 60 to 70 per cent of the company's business coming from Asia.
Felix Schoeller explains, ‘The renewable energy boom remains intact and the demand for wind energy is very high. Many offshore wind farms have been built, but there are still many projects underway and a lot of cargo in transit. Offshore components are getting bigger and heavier, which reduces the number of ships that can physically transport them.’
For oil and gas, companies often contract with those installing new platforms or refurbishing old equipment.Felix Schoeller notes, ‘The Middle East, Saudi Arabia, Qatar are boom areas. In North America, including Mexico, there's a big wave of upgrading old equipment, building LNG plants, building refineries, and refurbishing some old refining capacity.’
Renewable energy and conventional fuels together account for more than half of AAL's total business, and with the prospect of projects, AAL expects energy to account for the majority of its revenues in the future.
Indeed, AAL is not the only MPP player to have recently expanded its fleet. bbc Chartering has announced that it has begun taking delivery of the first of a series of 15 13,000-tonne MPP vessels. intermarine also officially announced last week the acquisition of a multi-purpose vessel (MPP), the ‘Industrial Intermarine also announced last week the acquisition of a multi-purpose vessel (MPP), the ‘Industrial Ursula’, expanding the fleet of the company and its alliance partners SAL and Jumbo Maritime to 40 vessels.
Domestically, leading heavy lift/equipment/bulk cargo carrier CWS also completed the commissioning of another 62,000 dwt MPP heavy lift newbuilding in mid-July, which is expected to be delivered in early August. Between 2021 and 2023, five vessels of CWL, including Taixing, Herbert, Piletsky, Yongxing and Yu'an, have been put into operation, and CWL is expected to take delivery of two more 62,000 dwt multi-purpose heavy lift vessels in the next two years.
Felix Schoeller is not concerned about whether the current influx of vessels will lead to an oversupply. He says: ‘The number of newbuild vessels coming onto the market is very limited compared to the demand we are currently seeing. However, we are catching up. It is a very specialised market.’
https://www.cnss.com.cn/html/sdbd/20240801/354239.html
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