The changes caused in the commercial routes of the tanker market by the Russian-Ukrainian war and the consequent sanctions are here to stay.
Several new shipping companies that have emerged taking advantage of the significant premiums in freight rates for the transportation of Russian oil are also here to stay, shipping broker sources and analysts who follow the market closely told “Naftemporiki”. “The world will hardly see Russia as it used to be,” they added.
“Because of the sanctions, many Russian funds found themselves outside of Russia – mainly in Dubai, Qatar, the Emirates, India and Turkey and created new companies, wanting to fill the void in the supply of ships caused by the sanctions,” Dimitris Roumeliotis, head of the Research and Valuations department of Xclusiv Shipbrokers, told “Naftemporiki”.
Analysts estimated at the beginning of this phenomenon that these are opportunistic companies taking advantage of the high prices in Russian oil. Now, however, some of these new corporate entities are deciding for the first time to contact shipyards and build new ships, giving the impression that they want to be present in the shipping market.
“The new companies that are ordering have invested a lot of money in assets with many years of life ahead of them and which will be delivered in two or three years. It is quite difficult for someone to invest in an asset that will start paying off in more than 3 years, with the aim of disappearing as soon as the Ukrainian issue is resolved, especially if we think about the prices of newly built ships and the interest rates on loans,” Roumeliotis underlined.
Teodor Shipping
An example of a company which is here to stay is Teodor Shipping, which, according to the Equasis platform, is based in Dubai. Until the start of the war, the shipping company had four ships in the fleet, two tankers and two LPG carriers. Today, it consists of 23 ships, with an average age of about 19 years.
In June, the company agreed with the South Korean shipyard Samsung Heavy Industries for the construction of two medium-sized Suezmax tankers. Another interesting element about Teodor Shipping is its fairly diversified fleet.
Kurow Shipping
Another example of such a company is Kurow Shipping. The shipping company recently ordered four plus four (option) LR2 tankers from the Chinese shipyard Zhoushan Changhong International Shipyard.
According to data shared with “Naftemporiki” by the shipping company VesselsValue, its fleet consists of 11 ships, nine tankers and two bulkers, with a total value of 455.32 million dollars. The data shows that it is very active in second-hand vessel purchases, with the deal for the first vessel of the fleet recorded in September 2022.
Kurow Shipping is said to be based in Turkey, according to shipping sources, but its corporate structure appears complicated. VesselsValue says it is linked to two more names that entered the shipping market after the war, K&O Shipmanagement and Zermatt Shipping.
