Stolt-Nielsen Orders Four Parcel Tankers

Stolt-Nielsen Transportation Group (SNTG), a subsidiary of Stolt-Nielsen S.A., announced that it has signed an agreement with ShinA Shipbuilding Co. Ltd. of South Korea for four 44,000 deadweight ton (dwt) parcel tankers, with delivery scheduled to begin in the second quarter of 2008. The aggregate price for the four ships is expected to be just under $230 million. Each ship will be equipped with 29 fully coated tanks and will be built to IMO 2 specifications, providing the additional segregations and cleaning capacity required to transport vegetable oils and chemicals. The ships have higher deadweight capacity than those built by SNTG in its last round of newbuildings in the late 1990s, complementing SNTG's current high-end all stainless steel fleet. The ships will replace tonnage currently scheduled for withdrawal from SNTG's fleet. SNTG's purchase decision followed a rigorous analysis of its tonnage- replacement requirements, global economic factors, and the outlook for the chemical tanker market. The selection of ShinA followed a thorough review of potential quality shipyards worldwide. Otto H. Fritzner, Chief Executive Officer of SNTG, said, "The purchase of these ships is an important component of SNTG's overall fleet replacement strategy. We are committed to ensuring that SNTG has the right size and quality fleet to reliably and efficiently meet the supply-chain needs of our valued customers worldwide, while also enabling us to capitalize on the strong growth opportunities in our markets. Given the tight shipbuilding market, we were pleased with ShinA's delivery schedule, the earliest currently available in today's market for this type of ship." "The addition of ships with this profile gives SNTG increased capacity in two of our key markets-specialty chemicals and veg oils-and also provides trading flexibility in other expanding markets, such as commodity chemicals," Fritzner added.