BLT taking delivery of 20 tanker newbuildings
BLT General Manager Peter Chayson added that earlier reports of the company securing a $400-million bank loan to pay for the 20 tankers were inaccurate as they [tankers] have been “financed internally”.
Chayson explained that “bank loans are usually drafted for purchases in the secondary market, while newbuildings are mostly internally financed.”
Reports had also pegged the 20 newbuildings to include crude oil and fuel oil tankers, but Chayson told Tankerworld that the 20 consisted of 14 chemical product tankers and six gas tankers including two for LNG.
Chayson said the chemical tankers are all being built in Japanese yards while the gas tankers are being constructed in either Japanese or South Korean yards.
“We have not contracted any Chinese yards for fear of late delivery and there have been cases where delivery was not even made,” he added.
Three of the 20 newbuildings to be delivered are part of a previous 10 tanker deal of which seven have already been delivered this year.
Regarding upcoming crude oil tanker purchases, Chayson said BLT, the world's third largest chemical tanker operator in the world, “is considering but we are only in the planning stages.”
BLT as of end May 2008 operates 84 tankers with a total tonnage of 2 million deadweight tonnes (dwt) with 21 of these tankers chartered-in.
With the acquisition of Chembulk Tankers LLC at the end of last year, BLT provides transportation services across the globe including throughout and between Europe, North America, South America, the Middle East, South Asia, Southeast Asia, East Asia/Far East and Australia.