Overseas Shipholding orders four Aframax tankers

Overseas Shipholding orders four Aframax tankers    Overseas Shipholding Group Inc., a New York-based tanker company, said it has ordered four 114,000-deadweight-ton Aframax tankers, to be delivered in 2008 and 2009.
   The new vessels will be built in the shipyard of New Times Shipbuilding Co., Ltd., in Jinjiang, China. They will increase OSG’s Aframax fleet to 21 tankers active in the Atlantic basin, and OSG’s total fleet size to 113 ships.
   OSG has decided to sell two of its older Aframax tankers, the company said in a statement.
   The four tankers will be built using the new Common Structural Rules established by the International Association of Classification Societies for all tankers and bulk carriers ordered after April 1. The new rules have stricter hull strength requirements and make more uniform technical criteria for double-hull tankers that had previously differed from one classification society to another.
   “The newbuild price we were able to negotiate was significantly less than the $75 million rates being quoted in the market today for less efficient vessels that are not CSR-compliant,” said Mats Berglund, head of OSG’s Crude Transportation Strategic Business unit.
   “After the sale of the older tankers, our marginal investment will more than double the commercial life of the vessels. Furthermore, the new ships are faster and have a larger carrying capacity and a shallower draft than the vessels we intend to sell,” Berglund explained.