Tanker stocks ready to rise?

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March 14, 2008

NEW YORK (Associated Press) - Ship Finance International Agrees to Buy 2 Newly Built Chemical Tankers for Combined $60.2M.

Oil tanker owner and operator Ship Finance International Ltd. said Friday it has agreed to acquire two newly built chemical tankers for a combined $60.2 million.

One vessel is expected to be delivered this month, and the other is projected to arrive in August. The vessels will both be chartered for 10 years to privately owned Norwegian chemical tanker company Bryggen Shipping & Trading AS.

The vessels will be chartered at a rate of $8,000 per vessel per day. At the end of the charter period, Bryggen has the option to buy the vessels for $20 million each.

Bryggen has sub-chartered the vessels for the entire period to Sinochem International Co. Ltd., a Chinese chemical logistics provider.

The transaction will be financed with a 10-year, $49 million senior loan facility and $11.2 million in equity.

After Ship Finance repays the debt and interest expenses associated with the deal, it expects an annual net benefit of $1.4 million.

Source: CNNMoney

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March 19 - ATHENS, Greece, - TOP Ships Inc.

(Nasdaq: TOPS) today announced that at a special meeting of shareholders held on March 13, 2008, the Company's shareholders approved a 1:3 reverse stock split. The reverse share split is expected to be effective on March 20, 2008.

Shareholders will receive instructions as to how to exchange existing share certificates for new certificates representing the post-reverse split shares.

Source: Top Ships

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SAN FRANCISCO (Thomson Financial) - Teekay LNG Partners (News) L.P. late Wednesday said it has agreed to acquire two specialized liquefied natural gas vessels, the Arctic Spirit and the Polar Spirit, from Teekay Corp. for $230 million.

The 88,000 cubic meter vessels were both built in 1993.

Teekay LNG expects to acquire the vessels on April 1, and immediately charter the vessels back to Teekay for a period of 10 years, plus options exercisable by Teekay to extend up to an additional 15 years.

The charters are expected to generate about $27 million yearly in operating cash flow to the partnership, the company said.

In a statement, Teekay LNG's Chief Executive Peter Evensen called the deal an 'accretive acquisition.'

Teekay LNG's closed the regular session down 15 cents at $27.30. Teekay finished down $1.68, or about 4.1%, at $39.36.

Source: finanznachrichten

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March 24, 2008 - The container throughput of Shanghai's seaport is expected to see stable growth of about 10 percent a year until 2010, a China Ports Future Forum said in Shanghai.

The projected growth is attributed to the booming economy in the Yangtze River Delta and preparations for the 2010 Shanghai World Expo, Xu Peixin, director-general of the municipal port administration, said. The port is at a critical point in its development and "high value-added port services will be the key focus, supported by the government's investment and financial policies," Xu said at the forum.

Last year, container throughput at the port rose to 560 million tons, up 4.2 percent on 2006. Also last year, Shanghai's cargo shipments increased by 26.15 million TEUs (twenty-foot-equivalent units) taking it past Hong Kong as the world's second-largest container seaport after Singapore.

Xu said forward-looking policy measures for the port will include a more diversified investment strategy to enhance its competitive edge.

But China's port industry still faces challenges, especially with regard to the shortage of large deep-water berths, Xu Li, assistant chief engineer with the Institute of Planning affiliated to the Ministry of Communications, said.
There are also far too few professional port pilots in many coastal seaports, he said.

Wang Ming, an official with the National Development and Reform Commission, said the shortage of land and energy faced by major costal areas of eastern China will also hinder the development of the seaport industry. He suggested improving coordination between China's harbors.

For container handling equipment supplier Kalmar Industries, there is plenty of potential in China's port facilities market.

Ken Loh, president of its Asian operations, said construction has begun on the second phase of its Lingang plant in Shanghai. The $20-million facility will boost production capacity and help the firm secure its position as the market leader on the mainland, he said.


Source: China Daily

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March 27, 2008 New York - Master limited partnership Capital Product Partners LP said Thursday it bought a double-hull crude oil tanker from Capital Maritime & Trading Corp. for $95 million.

Buying the M/T Amore Mio II, a 159,982 dry-weight ton vessel, increases the partnership's fleet to 15. It has plans to buy another three ships.

The most recent acquisition was partly funded with $46 million from the partnership's new 10-year, $350 million revolving credit facility.

The rest of the purchase price came $2 million in cash on hand and from issuing about 2 million partnership common units to Capital Maritime at a price of $22.94 per unit. That price is the weighted average unit price for the period from Oct. 15, 2007, to Feb. 15, 2008.

The Amore Mio II has been chartered to BP Shipping Ltd. under a charter expiring in January 2011, at the earliest, at a base gross rate of $36,456 per day.

Source: Forbes