Following in the footsteps of the V-MAX and C-MAX series of tankers, Concordia Maritime of the Stena Group, is poised to introduce a new member to its MAX tanker family called P-MAX. Four of these 49,900 dwt product tankers have recently been ordered from the Croatian yard of Brodosplit Shipyard with the first unit scheduled for delivery in early 2005. They will be the first product carriers to be owned by Swedish ship owner Concordia. The contract includes an option for two sister ships.
Built to operate in northern latitudes, these P-MAX vessels are being described as the largest medium range (MR) tankers in the world. They are principally designed for carrying fuel oil across the North Atlantic with secondary trading transporting heavy fuel in the North Sea - Baltic Sea areas. Although the P-MAXs will be as lean as their bigger V-max cousins with a similar block coefficient, they will have a different fore body to cater for service in ice conditions and will be built to Swedish/Finnish ice class 1B.
The P-MAX will have an overall length of 183m, similar to that of a traditional MR tanker. However the P-MAX will have a post-Panamax beam of 40m compared with the Panamax 32.2m for a traditional MR tanker. It will have 70,000m3 of cargo capacity at design draught of 11.30m. This is almost 30 per cent more than the 55,000m3 of today?s largest MR vessels and is the hallmark of the Stena MAX concept featuring wide-bodied, shallow-draught ships with twin propulsion systems and high cruising speeds.
In the product carrier sector, with frequent port calls, restricted water depths, traffic intensive waterways, sensitive cargoes and operations into sensitive areas, Concordia says that the improved manoeuvrability, reliability and redundancy found in all the Stena MAX ships are at the heart of safe ship operations.
To accommodate the ships, ports have less need to dredge berths and approaches, which is a cost benefit and makes environmental sense i.e. to adjust the ships to nature and not the other way round.
The new design will offer the active safety of propulsion redundancy with two engine rooms divided by a fire resistant and water-tight bulkhead, two engines with separate fuel supply and other auxiliary systems for each engine. These include twin propellers and rudders plus independent control and monitoring system for each propulsion unit. It is operable even when one of the engines is in trouble and meets the requirements of DNV?s RPS (redundant propulsion separate) class notation. In addition to being built to ice class specifications, the double hull will be further strengthened to DNV enhanced fatigue class notation ?plus 2? while navigation instrumentation and layout will meet DNV?s ?naut-aw? standards.
The cargo space will consist of 10 tanks plus two slop tanks and will have the ability to carry five different types of fuel oils. The estimated cost of each unit is in the order of $35 million.
Lars Carlsson, president of Concordia Maritime believes that now is the time for Concordia to expand into the challenging sectors, which the P-MAX orders represent. "The economics of scale for what is essentially a maxi medium range tanker will drive this deal in the commercial market, while there can be no doubt about the long term safety and environmental dividend" he says. "These are highly flexible vessels with lots of opportunities."
To date the ships have not been committed to a long-term charter, however Carlsson is unconcerned. " We are having discussions with charterers and cargo owners, and with the Stena MAX concept up and running with great success, these P-MAX ships are being built for an increasingly environment conscious market and we have every confidence that they will have an outstanding future." n
Stena Max philosophy
Readers will remember the two V-Max series delivered by Hyundai in 2001. The first unit of the 314,000 dwt vessels, Stena Vision, demonstrated that it is possible for a tanker to enter ports and waterways which had been earlier restricted to vessels with a significantly smaller cargo intake. The Stena Vision and Stena Victory have one parameter in common with traditional VLCCs and that is the length, 333m. With a breadth of 70m the vessels are, however, 10m wider than a conventional tanker designed for the same cargo intake. This is one of the corner stones in the Stena MAX concept.
Another is redundancy. A MAX vessel is equipped with double systems for its propulsion featuring two main engines, two rudders, two propeller shafts and two separate engines rooms made Stena Vision the first vessel to reach the requirements issued by DNV for its Redundant Propulsion Separate class notation.
A third is speed. The power output is higher compared to conventionally built tankers of corresponding sizes to secure a high degree of operational reliability also in adverse weather conditions. A fourth is operational life. These vessels are designed with a steel strength that will overcome fatigue stress during an operational life of 40 years. Paint works are also to a very high specification.
Together, these cornerstones form the foundation for a tanker operation that combines commercial effectiveness with a maritime safety and pollution prevention profile way above international regulations. But all this costs money and the yard price tag for a MAX-tanker is considerably higher than for a conventional tanker with the same cargo capacity.
Enhanced safety features are not enough to motivate such a cost difference. There also have to be commercial advantages for the prospective client, i.e. the cargo owner. That is why a larger cargo intake and improved operational reliability are vital arguments in the marketing of the MAX vessels.
Another important issue is the relationship between the ship owner and the charterer. The MAX vessels are too expensive to build for an uncertain future on the spot market. Furthermore, the price on the second hand market will probably not reflect the extra investments and, therefore, a signed and sealed long-term charter agreement securing future revenues at an acceptable level is a must before Stena will order a MAX vessel.
Placing an order must also be done at the right time of a shipyard business cycle. Shipyards with a healthy order book tend to be less interested in projects that do not include vessels that can be built without significant changes in their current production facilities and organisation, at least not at a price level acceptable to the ship owner.
The Stena V-Max?s were followed by two tankers on the other side of the deadweight scale the following year in the shape of the C-Max design. These are combined products and LPG carriers of 10,000 dwt and are operated by the Stena Bulk subsidiary StenTex in the Caribbean on long-term charter
agreements.
