Stelmar Shipping Ltd. has renewed an existing time charter for the Primar and an existing time charter for the Petromar. The company also announced that it has signed a
new time charter for the Allenmar, which had been trading in the spot market since the end of October, after being redelivered in late October from its previous time charter.
Primar, a 1988 double sided product tanker, has been renewed on a six-month time charter with Adam Maritime Corporation at a rate of $11,250 per day. The Allenmar, a 1989 double sided product tanker, has been signed to a one-year time charter with NYK at a rate of $12,500 per day. The Petromar, a 2001 double hull product tanker, has been renewed on a one-year time charter with Fuel and Marine Marketing, LLC (FAMM), ChevronTexaco Corporation's shipping division, at a rate of $12,750 per day. The renewed time charter for the Primar began in mid-November. The time charter for the Allenmar commenced in early December and the renewed time charter for Petromar will commence in late January 2003.
Peter R. Goodfellow, Chief Executive Officer and President of Stelmar Shipping Ltd., said, "With these most recent contracts, we have made further progress securing additional cash flow and improving our expected fleet utilization rate for 2003. We are pleased to have the opportunity to utilize our modern vessels to serve our long-standing customers with a focus on high-quality, safe operations. We intend to continue to sign profitable contracts for 2003 and beyond and achieve time charter coverage at levels consistent with previous years."
Stelmar has secured 87% of the net operating days of its fleet on profitable time charters for 2002 and 63% for 2003, equivalent to $138 million and $112 million in revenues respectively. For 2004, the Company has secured more than 25% of the net operating days of its fleet on profitable contracts, equivalent to $53 million in revenues.