Omi Corp News

Crowley Maritime Corporation has announced the appointment of Robe Grune to the position of vice president and general manager of Crowley’s newly formed ship Assist and Escort Services based in Seattle. Grune is responsible for profit and loss for the Ships Assist and Escort Services group and reports directly to Tom Crowley, Jr., chairman, president and CEO of Crowley Maritime Corporation. Crowley announced the reorganization of its Crowley Marine Services subsidiary into three distinct operating groups in October, including Energy and Marine Services, Ship Assist and Escort Services and Petroleum Services. With present operations in San Diego…

Crowley Maritime Corporation announced the appointment of Robe Grune to the position of Vice President and General Manager of Crowley's newly formed ship Assist and Escort Services based in Seattle. Grune is responsible for profit and loss for the Ships Assist and Escort Services group and reports directly to Tom Crowley, Jr., chairman, president and CEO of Crowley Maritime Corporation. Crowley announced the reorganization of its Crowley Marine Services subsidiary into three distinct operating groups in October, including Energy and Marine Services, Ship Assist and Escort Services and Petroleum Services. With present operations in San Diego…

Tom Crowley Jr., Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Crowley Maritime Corporation and Richard du Moulin, president of Marine Transport Corporation (MTC), jointly announced that with the successful integration of MTC into Crowley, du Moulin will be resigning from MTC to pursue other business interests. Crowley acquired Weehawken, N.J.-based MTC in February 2001. Mark Filanowski, senior vice president and chief financial officer of MTC, will also be leaving the company. Both resignations will take effect April 1, 2002. du Moulin had been Chairman of MTC since 1989 when he and Filanowski, utilizing their company Intrepid Shipping, acquired what was then NASDAQ-listed Marine Transport Lines, Inc. (MTL).

Three Vericor Power Systems' TF50 marine aeroderivative gas turbines have been selected to power the 118 Wallypower high-speed yacht being built by Intermarine Shipyard, Sarzana, Italy for Wally Yacht. This is Wally Yacht's first foray into high-speed power yachts, and the company's initial application of gas turbines. Wally Yacht, based in Monte Carlo, Monaco, is a world-renowned designer of high-speed sailing and power yachts. The 118-ft. yacht will feature three TF50 gas turbines in a Combined Diesel Or Gas (CODOG) turbine configuration. Two TF50s will be used as side or "wing" engines, with one small auxiliary diesel engine connected to each wing engine. The diesels will provide for very slow maneuvering only.

OMI Corp. reportedly plans to withdraw from its Singapore joint venture with Heidenreich Marine Ltd. after not being able to agree on terms to join with International Product Carriers Ltd.

Two major clean oil product tanker operators will form a vessel pool to market each others ships on opposite sides of the world. Japan's NYK Line and International Product Tankers Ltd. (IPC), a joint venture company formed by OMI Corp. and Osprey Maritime Ltd., said the agreement would cut costs and improve services. Under the agreement, IPC will market NYK's fleet of product tankers to European and U.S. customers when positioned in European or Atlantic waters. NYK will market IPC's fleet of product tankers to customers in Japan and South Korea. IPC operates a fleet of 30 ships of 1.1 million dwt. NYK is one of the world's leading shipping companies operating more than 500 ships in all areas of shipping.

A U.S. oil majors' Internet tanker venture is merging with a shipping dot-com in a bid to become the first live online chartering exchange for the industry. SeaLogistics, which is backed by five oil groups, is merging with OneSea Direct, which has several major shipowner investors, to combine their efforts in web-based tanker chartering, the two companies said. SeaLogistics currently involves U.S. oil companies Texaco, Chevron, Koch Industries, L.G. Caltex and Coastal Corp. OneSea includes support from leading shipping companies such as A.P. Moeller, Bergesen, Teekay, I.M. Skaugen, OMI Corp., Osprey, Leif Hoegh, Worldwide, Acomarit, and V.Ships.

It looks as though the notoriously cyclical shipping sector is heading back up the mountain, as last week one of the world's prestigious financial firms stamped four companies with an investment ratings uprade. ING Barings last Wednesday raised its ratings on four shipping companies to strong buy from buy. Analyst Stephen Gengaro raised his ratings on shares of Frontline Ltd., OMI Corp., Overseas Shipping Group and Teekay Shipping. Frontline was raised to a strong buy from buy and Gengaro's 2000 and 2001 estimates to $1.60 from 40 cents and to $2.35 from $1.00 to reflect the company's "tremendous" leverage to rising time-charter equivalent (TCE) rates for its very large crude carriers (VLCC) tankers.

ING Barings raised its ratings on four shipping companies to strong buy from buy. Analyst Stephen Gengaro raised his ratings on shares of Frontline Ltd. to a strong buy from buy to reflect the company's "tremendous" leverage to rising time-charter equivalent (TCE) rates for its very large crude carriers (VLCC) tankers. The rating on shares of international tanker owner OMI Corp. was raised to strong buy from buy, with revised estimates reflecting upward revisions to his rate assumptions for company's crude tanker and product tanker fleets. The rating on shares of Overseas Shipping Group was raised to strong buy from buy with a $30 price target based on 7.5 times the midpoint of his peak earnings estimate and peak pretax earnings per share estimate.

The Delaware River Pilots Association recently contracted with Carey's Diesel to repower a vessel with a pair of Isotta Fraschini marine diesel engines, rated at 550 hp @ 2,400 rpm. This is the third vessel the Pilots Association has chosen to repower using Isotta Fraschini engines. The first Isotta Fraschini repowers were two 56,000-lb. vessels named Wilmington and Delaware. Wilmington's two 8V-72T Detroit Diesel two-cycle, eight cylinder engines were replaced with two V1308T2 MLH Isotta Fraschini four-stroke, V-8 cylinder marine diesel engines. Delaware's two 8V-92 Detroit Diesel two-cycle, eight cylinder engines were replaced with a pair of V1312T2 MLH Isotta Fraschini four-stroke, V-12 cylinder marine diesel engines.

OMI Corp. has agreed to attain two 47,000-dwt product carriers from another owner that are currently under construction at Onimichi Dockyard in Japan. The vessels will be delivered to the company in September and late November 2000, upon which they will commence two time charters to an oil company. The company has also agreed to sell the 29,996-dwt product carrier Tiber, which was built in 1989, and is the last of its Polish built vessels.

OMI Corp. has appointed Donald C. Trauscht as a director - he currently serves as chairman of BW Capital Corp. Prior to his current position, Trauscht served as chairman and CEO of Borg Warner Corp. for whom he worked from 1967 to 1995. The company also reported that it expects to earn $.43 - $.48 per share for the fourth quarter. Rated for all its classes of tankers are at higher levels than during the third quarter and have continued to rise. OMI's Board reaffirmed the authorization for the Company to repurchase up to 10 percent of its outstanding shares.

Osprey Maritime Ltd. agreed to sell 10 product tankers to Greek shipping company Stelmar Shipping Ltd. for $216 million. Osprey said that this is in line with its revised strategy of focusing on the ownership and operation of LNG carriers. Athens-based Stelmar was set up in 1992 by Haji-Ioannou, owner of cutprice airline easyJet. Separately, Osprey said it had also agreed to sell another tanker to U.S. OMI Corp. for $14 million. OMI will fund the purchase via cash of $7.7 million and an issue of 900,000 OMI shares at $7.00 each, which amounts to $6.3 million, Osprey said. Shipping magnate John Fredriksen, whose World Shipholding Group now holds a 91 percent stake in Osprey…

Airline chief Stelios Haji-Ioannou's tanker company Stelmar has agreed to pay $212.5 million for the bulk of the clean tanker fleet of Singapore-listed Osprey Maritime, Reuters reported on Wednesday. Neither company was able to comment. Brokers said Stelmar, set up in 1992 by Haji-Ioannou, owner of cut price airline easy Jet, will take four double-hulled 1990s-built tankers of 46,000 tons and six slightly older and smaller single-hulled vessels in a deal that will double Stelmar's fleet size. The deal is subject to final Stelmar board approval, they added. A spokesman at Stelmar's Greek office said that because it was seeking a stock market listing, the company was prevented from commenting. Osprey company officials were unavailable for comment. U.S.

The Latvian Privatization Agency said on Thursday it had received two bids for the government's 68 percent stake in Latvian Shipping, one of the world's largest oil products transporters. "We have two contenders who expressed interest in participating in the Latvian Shipping privatization and have made their bids," said the economy minister, who heads the privatization agency's council. The agency did not name the bidders and the government has not provided estimates on the size of the sale. The Latvian Cabinet is expected to set the minimum price for the auction on April 10, while the auction itself will take place in May. The government has been trying to privatize the company since 1996, but its previous attempts have failed due to a lack of interest and political bickering.

Onomichi dockyard Co., Ltd. (ODC) completed construction of two 47,000 DWT type product carriers, Amazon and San Jacinto, for OMI Corporation in January and March 2002, respectively. The carriers are the 30th and 31st carriers of the 47,000DWT series built since the first in 1995. The company will build ten more product carriers, which are now one of the best sellers among standardized vessels built by the company. The 47,000 DWT type series is designed under the policy of building “double hull product carriers at low cost for efficient oil product transport.” The series has a maximum beam of 32.2m, which can pass through the Panama Canal, and a dept of 19.1m, which is the maximum depth to retain the ship stability.

Frontline Ltd., the world's second- biggest oil tanker company, said second-quarter profit slumped a greater-than-expected 46 percent as earnings declined for its older 1 million-barrel tankers. Net income dropped to $68.6 million, or 92 cents a share, from $127.5 million, or $1.70, in the year-earlier period, Hamilton, Bermuda-based Frontline said today in a statement. Frontline, led by Norwegian billionaire John Fredriksen, has failed to earn as much as rivals such as OMI Corp. and General Maritime Corp. from its 1 million-barrel ships, or suezmaxes, because almost half have single-layer hulls. Companies such as Total SA and Exxon Mobil Corp. have begun shunning such ships before an international ban, in favor of safer double-hull vessels.

Two major clean oil product tanker operators will reportedly form a vessel pool to market each other's ships on opposite sides of the world. Japan's NYK Line and International Product Tankers Ltd. (IPC), a joint venture company formed by OMI Corp. and Osprey Maritime Ltd., said the agreement would cut costs and improve services. Under the agreement, IPC will market NYK's fleet of product tankers to European and U.S. customers when positioned in European or Atlantic waters. NYK will market IPC's fleet of product tankers to customers in Japan and South Korea.

OMI Corp. has agreed to attain one of two Suezmax tankers currently under construction in Korea from Mega Tankers ASA of Oslo. The second tanker is being acquired by Frontline Ltd., the company's partner in Alliance Chartering LLC, which commercially manages the largest fleet of Suezmax tankers in the world. With a purchase price of $46.1 million, the company will issue 6.3 million shares valued at $2.50 per share to the sellers and assume approximately $30.3 million net in obligations to the shipbuilder.