Shailaja A. Lakshmi
South Korea's Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) delivered the first new building, named Nordic Aquarius, to Nordic American Tankers (NAT).
The Bermuda-based NAT said in a press release: "We have previously advised you of the new buildings coming from Samsung shipbuilding in South Korea in 2018, the first one now in July. The second ship is scheduled for delivery at the end of August and the third one at the end of October. We are pleased to inform you that the delivery of the first new building took place today exactly as planned."
It said that over the years they have received several new buildings from Samsung. All transactions have been performed in a flawless way. The ship is 156,900 DWT being able to load one million barrels of crude oil.
The Nordic Aquarius will be employed in worldwide trading. The first voyage is expected to be from the Singapore area to Western Europe.
"As informed you earlier, as with the two others, the first new building has been financed by a sale/lease back arrangement," it added.
Including the new buildings of 2018, NAT has now an industry leading suezmax age fleet profile along with the best balance sheet in the tanker industry.
"We have decided against going for a bond offering for reasons as informed you earlier. The three new buildings this year will reduce the average age of the NAT fleet substantially, to about 10 years per ship," the company said.
There is optimism in the tanker industry, concluded the release.