The market for transportation of oil and petroleum products is highly fragmented with a large number of players. Generally speaking, tanker shipping can be divided into two segments: crude oil and product tanker shipping (transportation of refined petroleum products). Normally, crude oil tankers, large tankers of between 80,000 and 320,000 dwt, are used to transport oil from the well to the refinery. Smaller vessels, product tankers of between 10,000 and 80,000 dwt, are used for transportation from the refinery to the depot.
Compared with other shipping companies, Concordia Maritime is a typical niche company in terms of both size and specialisation. It focuses on cost-effective and safe transportation of refined petroleum products. The development of ship types for specific requirements and close, long-term collaboration with customers are a fundamental part of its strategy.
There are a limited number of players active in the same segments as Concordia Maritime. In the world, there are total of about 400 vessels in the 55,000–75,000 dwt segment. Competition comes mainly from large international tanker shipping companies transporting both crude oil and refined petroleum products. Concordia Maritime’s principal competitors include Danish Torm and Maersk and Canadian Teekay.
Increasing tonnage
As a result of the high freight rates in recent years, several of these players have been able to expand heavily by ordering newbuildings and buying up other shipping companies. There has been a sharp increase in capacity in the product tanker segment. In the last ten years alone, total available deadweight in the segment has increased more than 35 per cent. The fleet’s growth rate will continue to be high in the years immediately ahead.
Fewer but larger players
A clear trend in tanker shipping is that shipping companies are consolidating into larger units while the smaller shipping companies are decreasing in number. An example of this is Maersk Product Tankers’ acquisition of Swedish Broström AB during the year. It is also becoming increasingly common for smaller shipowners to try to achieve advantages of scale by means of different forms of collaboration, e.g. operation, manning and chartering. The many different types of pools existing are examples of this. Torm and Navig8’ s pools of MR vessels are among the larger pools.
Difficult to specify market shares
The many different ways of operating a fleet and the customers’ in many cases specific requirements and mobility in the market make it difficult to describe the market in terms of market shares. The shipping companies on the list below operate about 26 per cent of the global existing tanker fleet, which totals 400 million deadweight tons.
Concordia Maritime is a typical niche company, which focuses on cost-effective and safe transportation of refined petroleum products.
Concordia Maritime compared with its competitors
