Norden has been building up its tanker fleet in 2017, and the carrier plans to keep up the fleet expansion, according to its publication Norden News.

Here the carrier notes that the expansion involves MR vessels in particular, but more ships will also be added to the Handysize segment. The main focus will be to sign charter contracts for one year at a time.

But the current market conditions mean that the carrier is also looking at other possibilities.

"In the current poor tanker market, the price level of both newbuildings and secondhand vessels has provided some attractive opportunities to increase Norden's core fleet in particular of MR product tankers. Norden does not expect the historically relatively low price level to change Norden expands its tanker fleet right away, and so there will possibly continue to be attractive opportunities to increase the long-term chartered tonnage during 2017 – i.e. tonnage chartered for more than 13 months," writes the carrier.

So far this year the carrier has chartered 11 MR vessels and three Handysizes on either mediumor long-term contracts, while Norden has also bought two second-hand MR vessels built in 2009 and 2010, respectively. All the ships will be delivered to the carrier ahead of 2020.

The tanker fleet consisted of 36 vessels per March 31, of which 25 were MR vessels with capacities ranging from 45,000 to 50,000 tons. Of the combined fleet, Norden owns nine MRs and ten Handysize vessels while the rest are on charter.

English Edit: Daniel Logan Berg-Munch

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