Broström Modernizes its European Product Tanker Fleet

Broström has placed an order for the building of four 14,500 deadweight product- and chemicaltankers. The order secures Broström's position as being a significant transportation service provider to customers in the intra European trade of oil products. The vessels will be built by Jinling Shipyard, Nanjing, China and delivered in 2006 and 2007. Broström employs 37 tankers in European trade and transports more than 20 million tonnes of oil products per year. 18 of the ships are of intermediate size (10,000-20,000 dwt) and employed in North West Europe. Four of the ships of the latter segment were built in the late 80'ies and even if these ships can trade up to year 2014 according to EU's new rules Broström has decided to replace the ships by modern and more efficient tonnage. Environmental issues have been one of the most important issues in the development and designing of the vessels. Redundancy in propulsion and the cleaning of NOx and SOx are vital ingredients in this respect. Further concentration has been made on technical solutions related to safety, cargo handling productivity and manoeuvrability. For more technical details see below. The Broström Group operates presently a fleet of 65 product and chemical tankers from 4,000 to 80,000 dwt with an average age of 7 years. "By this investment Broström secures the position as being the largest provider of transportation services to customers in the European trade. Broström's capacity in product tanker shipping is covered to a great extent by Contracts of Affreightment. The design of the new ships and choice of features give Broström a competitive edge", states Broström CEO Lennart Simonsson.