Marine Marketing Llc News

SGX Mainboard-listed Chemoil (SGX-ST: CHEL.SI), supplier of marine fuel, announced its acquisition of OceanConnect Holding’s (OCH), marine fuel business. The purchase price as agreed by both parties is expected to be approximately $25m and took into account factors such as the marine fuel business’ historical and future earnings potential. The deal includes the acquisition of OCH’s marine fuel business, its independent online bunker auction portal, and a team of experienced bunker brokering and trading employees and staff in the United States…

When Texaco, now represented in the marine lubricants market by FAMM (Fuel and Marine Marketing), launched Taro 40 XL 40, the lubricant was designed to address pressing field problems in medium speed engines. Three years later FAMM is in a position to evaluate the performance in a large number of engines and to compare the field results with competitive lubricants. The pressing problems arose from a series of engine design and fuel processing changes. Although aimed at improving engine efficiency and making savings, the changes resulted in a series of difficulties. The best known are engine blackening, undercrown deposits, piston head corrosion, fouling of purifier heaters, increased oil consumption, base number depletion, oil scraper ring clogging and increased piston deposits.

Much as has transpired in mainstream consumer markets, the dot com craze has recently enveloped the maritime world with promises of cost savings and operational efficiencies. While an attrition and natural process of consolidation can eventually be expected, the world of e-commerce solutions for the maritime market is definitely in its infancy. While it is impossible to judge the full working models in this report, the following text contains synopsis reports on some of the more noteworthy market entrants. Recently launched by Boston-based WebPark Corp., Boat-Park.com is an on-line virtual trade show, which seeks to bring together worldwide participants into its virtual trade show, which is open 24/7.

Stelmar Shipping Ltd. today announced that it has signed an 18-month time charter contract for the Rimar, a 1998 double-hull Handymax tanker. The time charter is expected to commence at the end of July 2003. The time charter contract is with ChevronTexaco at a rate of $14,000 per day. As part of the contract, ChevronTexaco has options to replace the Rimar with one of the Company's Handymax newbuildings at $14,500 per day and to time charter a second vessel at $14,500 per day for a similar duration. These options will be declared by the end of September 2003. ChevronTexaco's decision to time charter the Rimar follows a recent move by Fuel and Marine Marketing LLC (FAMM), a ChevronTexaco company, to renew time charter contracts for two other Stelmar vessels.

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…

OceanConnect.com, the global online marketplace for the purchase and sale of marine fuels, announced that the company has reached the million-ton milestone for bunkers sold by offering the only comprehensive online and offline bunker purchasing system. Neptune Orient Lines Ltd (NOL), one of the world's largest container shipping lines, created the transaction that put OceanConnect over the top. Their enquiry generated fourteen bids by four suppliers and closed online with Fuel and Marine Marketing LLC (FAMM). Each company was proud to be part of OceanConnect's historic milestone. "We were excited that our auction accounted for OceanConnect's millionth ton. Their service saves us time and money, and is the best platform for bunker purchasing.

BP Amoco Plc., Royal Dutch/Shell, Texaco Inc., and Chevron Corp. are developing an Internet site allowing energy companies to buy and sell fuel for ships. The companies said the site (www.OceanConnect.com) would be up and running by the second quarter of this year, marking the latest in a series of projects by energy companies aiming to jump into e-commerce.In the past week Shell, Chevron, and Norway's state-run Statoil have all unveiled separate Internet ventures in an effort to save costs. OceanConnect.com will provide users with up-to-the-minute market and weather information and feature an auction site and e-mail-enabled transactions for purchase and sale of marine fuels and services, the company said.

Stelmar Shipping Ltd. announced that it has signed a time charter contract for the Ambermar. The time charter for the Ambermar, a 2002 double-hull Handymax tanker, was renewed for another two years by Fuel and Marine Marketing LLC (FAMM), a ChevronTexaco company, at a rate of $14,000 per day. To date, Stelmar has secured 82.4% of the net operating days of its fleet on profitable time charters for 2003 and 39.2% for 2004, representing $138 million and $86 million in revenues, respectively. Peter Goodfellow, Chief Executive Officer and President, stated, "The execution of this contract marks another achievement under Stelmar's time charter strategy for allowing the Company to benefit in a strong rate environment.