One week, two landmark deals for crude tankers

In this week’s Wavelength podcast:

It has been a landmark week for deals in the crude tanker space, but the big-money investments and fundraising come as around 20,000 seafarers remain trapped the Middle East Gulf.

It was confirmed this week that Gianluigi Aponte’s MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company is buying into South Korea’s Sinokor Maritime Co.

Sinokor’s buying and chartering spree this year has given the company a potential 20% to 25% market share in VLCCs.

Read more: Official: World’s richest shipowner equal partner with Sinokor in VLCC superpower

Read more: Is VLCC consolidator Sinokor Maritime about to raid the suezmax sector?

Meanwhile in Oslo, Capital Tankers completed its initial public offering of shares marking the first shipping IPO anywhere for five years. Raising $500m, it was the biggest shipping public offering anywhere in two decades.

The Evangelos Marinakis-backed company had a great start on the bourse, but the share price was rocked by the war in the Middle East.

Questions are beginning to swirl about how crude tankers will be affected if there is less oil on the water, if the blockade of Hormuz drags on.

Read more: Capital Tankers: War offers ‘sobering illustration of how quickly energy trade routes can be disrupted’

Read more: Evangelos Marinakis can build a rival to Frontline on John Fredriksen’s home turf

The International Maritime Organization this week called an emergency meeting to make plans for a humanitarian corridor that would allow ships and their crews to be evacuated from the Gulf through Hormuz.

But, as international politics clashed, the IMO meeting found that drawing up a viable plan and executing it quickly will be easier said than done.

Read more: Time is short: IMO chief urges action for 20,000 seafarers trapped in Middle East Gulf

Read more: Strait of Hormuz safe corridor plan wins backing from UN shipping regulator

The idea for an humanitarian corridor through Hormuz was supported this week by the vice president of the China Shipowners’ Association, Zhao Qingfeng.

Speaking at the TradeWinds Shipowners’ Forum in Shanghai, Zhao supported a specific window of time to allow vessels to leave the war zone.

Read more: ‘We will not make war money’: Chinese shipowners call for Hormuz window

Host: Craig Eason.

Producer: Holly Birkett.

Reporters: Andy Pierce, Paul Peachey, Matt Coyne and Yannick Guerry.

A TradeWinds/DN Media Podcast.

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