NewLead Fixes Tanker

 

NewLead Holdings Ltd. announced today that the Company has entered into a new time charter contract for one of its bitumen tanker vessels, the MT Newlead Granadino for a minimum of six months with the charterer's option to extend the contract at the end of the first six months for additional six month periods up to a maximum of eighteen months.

The net charter-out rate is $10,500 for the initial six months and $10,750 for the remaining optional periods. The charter commenced on July 22, 2015.

The Newlead Granadino is a 2009-built double hull bitumen tanker vessel of 5,887 dwt and is one of the five bitumen tanker vessels that were delivered to NewLead's fleet in the fourth quarter of 2014.

When NewLead took delivery of Newlead Granadino in November 2014, the vessel was already chartered-out on a time charter agreement at a net charter-out rate of $8,900 for about nine months. From the beginning of January 2015, when that time charter agreement expired, until the latest time charter agreement, the Newlead Granadino had been trading on the spot market and had completed six voyages in the Mediterranean Sea and the United Arab Emirates area. Today, the Newlead Granadino is trading in North America where the vessel was repositioned in August 2015 to perform on the latest time charter agreement.

Mr. Zolotas added, "Today, four out of our five bitumen oil tanker vessels are in a time charter contract and one is trading spot which allows for hedging of the bitumen market fluctuations. Newlead is aiming to expand the Company's fleet with modern bitumen tankers to not only have a strong presence in the Mediterranean Sea and the United Arab Emirates area, but also in North America in order to develop on our strategic decision to be a worldwide player in the bitumen oil tanker market."