Page 9: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (June 2001)

Investment in Design by Barreras, although reccnt years have seen the shipbuilder demonstrate equal prowess in the RoRo disciplines.

Visionary Approach to Tanker Trades

With the first of Concordia Maritime's revolutionary class of V-Max tanker set to cut a new figure in crude oil trade into the Delaware River, parent Stena Bulk has embarked on plans to adapt the innovative design concept to other sec- tors of the market. Just as the intrinsic maneuverability and shallow draft of the twin-engined, twin-skeg V-Max has brought a VLCC shipment capability to ports hitherto limited to Suezmax ton- nage, the nascent S-Max is intended to deliver Suezmax shipments to ports and terminals currently restricted to Afra- max tankers.

Work has been implemented in

Gothenburg on the wide-bodied S-Max, which would perpetuate, in the one mil- lion-barrel capacity league, the combi- nation of economies of scale, exception- al operational flexibility, enhanced transportation dependability, safety and environmental protection manifested in

Concordia Maritime's 313,000-dwt

Stena Vision.

The V-Max tankers have been con- ceived with a clear customer focus. The objective has been reduce oil companies' logistic costs, by offering a 30 percent higher loading capacity on a limited draft relative to more conventional designs of newbuilding VLCC, on an equivalent bunker consumption. Stena

Vision is claimed to be the first VLCC to satisfy Det Norske Veritas' requirements for the class notation RPS (redundant propulsion, separate). The premium entailed in a dual main engine installa- tion, with two shaftlines and twin pro- pellers, plus the associated special underwater form, is largely offset by the increased revenue-earning capacity and potential savings in unit transport costs.

Concordia's investment in the pioneer- ing V-Max type was quickly vindicated by Sun Oil Company's three-year char- ter commitments to the newbuilding pair. As a consequence of the agreement, the twin-skeg Stena Vision, to be joined in July by Stena Victory, will become a regular feature of the traffic to Sun's two refineries near Philadelphia.

However, options on a further six such vessels appended to Concordia's con- tract with Hyundai Heavy Industries have not been exercised, in the absence of satisfactory agreements with other charterers. The reported 10-12 percent higher price commanded by each of the

V-Max duo at the time of contracting, relative to more standard VLCC capaci- ty, is a measure of the premium entailed in conferring such a high margin of safe- ty-

Although there would currently appear to be few charterers worldwide willing to pay significantly more for quality ton- nage designed and engineered to confer very high safety factors, Concordia Mar- itime's managing director Lars Carls- son believes that the V-Max investment will pay-off in the long-term.

Within the framework of Stena's Wide

Body concept, the group's engineers have also developed a 10,000 dwt flexi- ble coastal tanker type with a draft of only 20 ft. (6.1 m).

Optimized to reduce the prospective oil company user's transport costs per barrel, the C-Max type incorporates diesel-electric propulsion and azimuthing thrusters and has provided the blueprint for a newbuild pair in

Poland.

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