Trafigura confirms the sale and lease back of five eco-type medium-range new build tankers to Bank of Communications Financial Leasing Co., Ltd
Geneva, 7 October 2016 - Trafigura Group Pte Ltd., ("Trafigura"), a market leader in the global commodities industry has today announced the structured sale and lease back to Bank of Communications Financial Leasing Co., Ltd, China of five medium-range, eco-type new-build tankers.
The new-build vessels, ordered by Trafigura in 2013 from Guangzhou shipyard China, can each carry close to 50,000-mts of dirty and clean petroleum products. They were delivered to Bank of Communications Financial Leasing Company Ltd at the end of September.
“The sale and lease back of the vessels concludes an entry and exit for now in owning product tankers for Trafigura,” said Rasmus Bach Nielsen, Global Head of Wet Freight for Trafigura. “The ships were bought at low entry levels and we saw an opportunity to sell now. While we have a significantly growing cargo programme it is not a must for us also to own the steel. This is our first transaction with BoCom Financial Leasing and we look forward working with them in the years ahead.”
The number of Trafigura’s wet freight fixtures rose to 1,959 in 2015, from 1,680 in 2014 and with 2016 expected to generate more than 2,700 wet freight fixtures on the back of significantly increasing trading volumes. Trafigura’s shipping and chartering desk is closely integrated into the company’s business model, providing freight services to the commodity trading teams internally while also trading freight externally with third parties. The team charters a range of tanker tonnage to meet its physical delivery requirements for the worldwide transportation of oil and petroleum products. The company’s wet freight desks deal in all vessel sizes from 2,000 to 300,000 deadweight tonnes tankers. The vessels trade in every market segment including crude, products, LNG and LPG. The team fix vessels on spot voyage and run a portfolio of time-charter ships with period commitments spanning 30 days to three years fixing both external and internal cargoes, aiming always to maximise the inherent value of the trading platform.
The terms of the agreement have not been disclosed.
ENDS
For further information please contact:
Trafigura’s Global Press Office: +41 (0) 22 592 4528 or media@trafigura.com
Notes to editors
Founded in 1993, Trafigura is one of the largest physical commodities trading groups in the world. Trafigura sources, stores, transports and delivers a range of raw materials (including oil and refined products and metals and minerals) to clients around the world. The trading business is supported by industrial and financial assets, including 48.8 percent owned global oil products storage and distribution company Puma Energy; global terminals, warehousing and logistics operator Impala Terminals; Trafigura's Mining Group; 50 percent owned DT Group which specialises in logistics and trading; and Galena Asset Management. The Company is owned by over 600 of its almost 5,300 employees who work in offices in 37 countries around the world. Trafigura has achieved substantial growth over the last ten years, growing turnover from USD12 billion in 2003 to USD97.2 billion in 2015. The Group has been connecting its customers to the global economy for more than two decades, growing prosperity by advancing trade.