Pool growth continues as complex market conditions highlight the value of pooling.
Tankers International, the world’s leading shipping pool for VLCCs, has grown rapidly throughout 2022, bringing the total size of the Tankers International fleet to 66 VLCCs, across 8 pool partners.
The Tankers International pool has added more modern tonnage throughout 2022, bringing the average age of the fleet down whilst increasing its size. Tankers International’s 66 strong fleet now has an average age of 7.8 years. The specialist scrubber pool has grown to 34 vessels from 19 vessels at the start of 2022 with an average age of 6.8 years decreasing from 7.5 years.
Tankers International pool partners benefit from improved cash flow, allowing the vessels to trade on longer, more profitable routes, alongside streamlined operations and the strong market intelligence of Tankers International. The unique pooling model leverages the collective strength of the pool, in data, scale, and size, to maximise earnings for pool partners.
Tankers International’s Scrubber Pool operates as a sub-pool, sitting within the Tankers International umbrella of specialised Pools. This means that it operates from a robust financial and commercial perspective whilst continuing to share resources across the entire Tankers International fleet.
Charlie Grey, Chief Operating Officer, Tankers International, commented: “The VLCC sector’s recovery has been dramatic, especially during the second half of last year. However, this recovery has arrived alongside changes in trade routes as our market becomes more complex. As a result, we have seen the value of pooling continue to increase. We are incredibly pleased that the Tankers International VLCC pooling model continues to provide exceptional value for our partners.”
The best commercial decisions are built on good data. Today, more than ever, comprehensive information holds huge power and potential.
The VLCC segment has historically been incredibly opaque. Critical information on fixtures has been held by a select few and not shared with the wider shipowner, charterer, broker, and investor communities. This power imbalance meant that many were making business-critical decisions ‘in the dark’, and addressing the disadvantage that this caused to the market as a whole was one of the driving forces behind the initial development of our VLCC Fixture app.
The ‘live’ fixture data we share via our app can make the difference between maximising profits and missing an opportunity on an individual level. Yet, it can have an even more substantial impact at an institutional level – when it can be integrated into existing systems to supplement other data streams, and seamlessly provide greater levels of support from strategy development to individual deal making.
The right data
If you know at what rate a VLCC was fixed at some point this week, you have some insight into market movements. If you know what are a VLCC was fixed at on the same route that you are contracting for, 5 minutes ago, you have a superior level of insight.
When you can cross-check vessel and contract specifications against your own, you can understand the exact market value of one ship on one route when you are making a deal. By accessing a comprehensive breakdown of that vessel’s Time Charter Equivalent (TCE), you can understand how earnings translate to profits across the market – and where you may need to make adjustments.
Coupling this data with detailed cargo forecasts can further allow decision makers to plan ahead, from strategic decisions on asset plays or dry dock dates, to commercial decisions by charterers and cargo owners guided by VLCC availability and freight levels globally or in specific regions of the World.
This is not an exhaustive list of useful data points by any means, but it does illustrate where the quality of the information you hold feeds into practical, on-the-ground decision making. Decision makers need to have fresh, comprehensive, relevant data that they can trust if they are to maximise their earnings.
An institutional approach to data
Where fixture data is vitally important, it is rarely the only decision-critical information that an organisation will hold. Most shipowners and charterers will hold their own proprietary information or data streams, and many will purchase external data dashboards and terminals from specialist insight partners.
Maximising the institutional value of this data can be a difficult task. The biggest challenge is often ensuring that decision makers are practically able to access, understand, and cross-check different types of data that they have access to at critical times; often data streams provide different types of information in different formats, and switching between dashboards or raw number can be challenging.
Information must be readily accessible and frequently used across each of an organisation’s levels if it is to be used to its full potential. The best way of achieving this is to integrate data streams into a single system, to create cross-stream dashboards and uniform data formatting.
This can be critical for larger shipowners, charterers, and investors. But it is also vital for their external insight providers, who pride themselves on offering an easy-to-navigate one stop shop for high quality data and insights.
We know that this knowledge and insight-based approach works because we use it across Tankers International. By leveraging the strength and scale of our pool, alongside the unrivalled experience and expertise of our team, we can develop enhanced and actionable insights. We then use these insights to reliably boost earnings for all our pool partners.
We provide our VLCC fixture data in an easily accessible format. All users benefit from a simple user interface that can be accessed via a simple web app. PLUS tier subscribers additionally benefit from enhanced search features that allow them to better locate specific data based on different parameters such as vessel type, owner and route, as well as having access to a comprehensive breakdown of TCE calculations. PRO tier subscribers also benefit from cargo forecasts and live WhatsApp notifications.
Our data can also be integrated into a company’s own systems through our app Application Programming Interface (API). A number of major organisations have already opted for this API integration option. If this is of interest to you or your organisation, please contact the Tankers International team.
Data insights are the foundation of all good commercial decisions. Now more than ever, shipowners, charterers, brokers, and investors must ensure that they have the right data – and are able to seamlessly use it, throughout their organisation.
You can find more information about subscriptions for the Tankers International VLCC Fixture app here. Please contact our team to enquire about our API.
New subscription plans will unlock new levels of bankable data, functionality, and analysis.
Tankers International, the world’s leading shipping pool for VLCCs, today announced an update, including a new subscription scheme, for its popular VLCC Fixture app.
This new subscription structure will provide even better functionality for app users and support market stakeholders in understanding current developments for the global VLCC fleet. First launched in 2014, the Tankers International VLCC Fixture app is the only publicly available source of comprehensive fixture data for the global VLCC fleet and provides wider market access to data that was once only provided to a select few brokers. The app has received over 259,000 visits a month since it was re-launched in December 2021
Paid app subscribers will benefit from faster data updates and a suite of additional insights. Subscribers to the PLUS tier will benefit from additional information on bunker prices, fixing rates, laycan, demurrage, and commissions as well as a full breakdown of TCE calculations. PRO tier subscribers will additionally benefit from cargo forecasts as well as WhatsApp notifications. Users will also have an option to receive fixture data via an API feed to integrate into their own systems.
These improved features will allow users to integrate even more quality data and analysis into negotiations and strategic decision making, helping the VLCC market make better decisions that improve profit margins for app users and their stakeholders. The app’s BASIC tier will remain free and will continue to provide headline data on VLCC fixtures, but with some delay.
Charlie Grey, Chief Operating Officer, Tankers International, commented: “We recognise that the current market climate means that shipowners, charterers and brokers alike all need quality data, faster to support decision making. The new subscription options for our VLCC Fixture app have been designed to add even greater value and accessibility, including WhatsApp updates for top tier subscribers. By introducing these updates, we are both improving the app for users and, just as importantly, safeguarding the continued development of the app, helping us add even more functionality in the future.”
The newly launched version of the Tankers International VLCC fixtures App can be downloaded as an ‘in-browser’ app here.
The Mercuria-operated Seaways Kilimanjaro will benefit from maximised earnings, operational streamlining, and technical informational sharing as part of Tankers International’s specialist Scrubber Pool.
Tankers International, the world’s leading shipping pool for VLCCs, announced today that the Mercuria operated Seaways Kilimanjaro has joined Tankers International’s specialist VLCC Scrubber Pool.
The Seaways Kilimanjaro (296,999 DWT / Built 2012) was delivered to Tankers International on 15 March. The total size of the Tankers International fleet now stands at 58 VLCCs, and the specialist Scrubber Pool has increased in size to 21 vessels, with four more retrofits expected to join throughout 2022.
Mercuria, one of the largest integrated energy and commodity trading companies, will benefit from a transparent and cost-effective solution to maximise earnings in the spot market through Tankers International’s powerful economies of scale and unparalleled access to relationships and cargoes. Mercuria will also benefit from more streamlined operations, consistent cash flow, and high-level information sharing associated with Tankers International’s pooling model. At the same time, Tankers International will benefit from new insights into Mercuria’s trading markets.
The Tankers International Scrubber Pool functions as a sub-pool within the Tankers International organisation, operating on a financial and commercial perspective while continuing to share resources across the entire Tankers International fleet. It allows Tankers International to leverage the different trading patterns and earning potential inherent in scrubber-fitted vessels to maximise Pool earnings and provide consistent access to more options for customers.
Charlie Grey,Chief Operating Officer, Tankers International, commented: “The addition of the Seaways Kilimanjaro further improves the unrivalled strength and depth of our pool, which will deliver unique benefits for Mercuria as well as our other Pool partners. It also represents an exciting opportunity for us to develop a closer relationship with Mercuria, which has a fantastic reputation and large footprint across the commodities supply chain.
Tankers International’s new climate compensation voyage programme for the tanker sector enables organisations to accelerate and deliver climate commitments through nature-based solutions. Delivered with Vertree Partners Limited (Vertree), a subsidiary of Hartree Partners, the initiative allows Tankers International to assess and understand the carbon footprint of its pool and offer customers the ability to compensate unavoidable value chain emissions.
The initiative has received strong interest following its launch in January 2022, suggesting that there is growing recognition of the role that climate compensation could play in addressing carbon consumption in global supply chains. This is critical for the shipping industry, which faces major technological difficulties in decarbonising compared to land-based transport and industries. With new low and zero carbon marine fuels yet to mature, energy-efficiency technologies offer the sector’s main short-term option to secure emissions reductions. However, climate compensation will help to achieve further progress along the road towards net zero. A similar scheme is already in place in the global aviation industry. The International Civil Aviation Organization launched CORSIA, short for “Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation”, in 2016 to complement a broader package of measures to help the sector achieve its aspirational goal of carbon-neutral growth by 2020 onwards.
Market-based measures like Tankers International’s climate compensation voyage programme offer participants a voluntary, flexible, and affordable way to achieve environmental savings. In the wake of COP 26, the shipping industry, tanker segment and wider supply chain players are increasingly asking: what’s the opportunity and how do I participate?
What is climate compensation?
Climate compensation enables the shipping industry and its supply chain to invest in nature to reach net zero. It finances projects around the world that protect, restore or plant forests that sequester or capture carbon from the atmosphere, while also delivering co-benefits to local communities including biodiversity protection, local job opportunities, cleanwater supplies and improved educational opportunities.
Participants in Tankers International’s climate compensation voyage programme have the opportunity to offer customers high-quality spot or forward verified carbon credits. To determine a CO2 emissions baseline, Vertree uses scientifically recognised methodologies and independently verified proprietary data to calculate emissions on a per voyage, monthly or annual basis. Customers can then choose from a range of nature-based options to compensate the carbon footprint, tailored to price, geographies and impact targets.
Vertree currently has a global portfolio of projects under management, which provide carbon offsets that equate to the equivalent of over 30 million tonnes of CO2 per annum.
These include a mixture of carbon reduction and carbon removal projects. Example projects include forest conservation, protection from deforestation afforestation, restoration, regenerative agricultural practices, blue carbon restoration, and clean cooking stoves.
Do participants in Tankers International’s scheme need both carbon avoidance and carbon removal?
Biology dictates that carbon removal projects will take time to deliver the desired volume of carbon credits Trees, for example, take decades to grow. This means that in the initial years of a climate compensation programme, there is an inevitable wait.
To avoid a carbon debt building up during this time, carbon reduction initiatives can be used. A big part of the value that Vertree brings is the ability to create a portfolio that evolves over time and is spread across the globe to mitigate against country risks. Typically, this means overweighting carbon reduction credits today, and scaling up carbon removal credits over time. A fixed price delivery of CO2 offsetting from carbon reduction and removals is achieved through Vertree’s integrated business model. This allows customers to, for example, lock in climate compensation for the duration of a long-term time charter.
How do you price a climate compensation voyage?
There are three key elements that come into play during price calculations. The first is the quality of the carbon offset. Each project has its own price and Vertree bases its calculations on the cost of displacing the current activity taking place. In practice, this could mean, for example, considering the cost of displacing palm oil production in Indonesia.
Next the scope of the emissions being offset is considered. For example, this could include upstream, midstream and downstream elements. If all three are factored in, there will be a larger absolute cost, but the customer benefits from economies of scale. The final key factor is the relative carbon intensity of the commodity to be offset. This final factor is used to calculate the baseline amount of carbon to be offset during each voyage.
Supply and demand characteristics also come into play. The shipping industry is not competing in the carbon markets in a vacuum. The power, oil, technology, and aviation markets are just some of the global industries also vying for a finite amount of opportunities.
How do you guarantee the integrity of projects and greenhouse gas emissions reductions included in the climate compensation voyage programme?
Transparency around climate compensation projects has never been better and continues to rapidly improve. When assessing a project, Vertree uses a five-step process to ensure emissions savings are real, unique, permanent and additional (i.e., over and above the emissions savings achieved in the natural environment without intervention).
All projects are verified under major international standards including the Verified Carbon Standard and Gold Standard. Vertree also aims to achieve the Climate, Community, and Biodiversity Standard certification.
Regulation of climate compensation projects is also various and evolving, and Vertree actively monitors the legal landscape and ensures compliance to new standards. It also adapts its certification, closely following new standards in the market and using independent rating agencies when appropriate.
Where can I find more information about the climate compensation voyage programme?
If you would like to find out more about our climate compensation voyage programme, please visit this page or contact Matthew Smith, Senior Vice President Commercial & Operations at comms@tankers.uk.com or +44 (0) 20 7870 4700
Tankers International, a world leading shipping pool for VLCCs, has today announced the launch of its new climate compensation voyage programme for the tanker sector. The initiative will be delivered with Vertree Partners Limited (Vertree), a wholly owned subsidiary of Hartree Partners, which enables organisations to accelerate and deliver climate commitments through nature-based solutions.
The international shipping industry accounts for approximately 1 billion tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions annually1, with a trajectory that is set to see that figure rise. Shipping is also deemed by the UNFCCC – along with aviation – as facing major technological difficulties in decarbonising compared to land-based transport and industries; with new, substantially more costly low and zero carbon marine fuels the main option for the sector to transition.
The partnership with Vertree will allow Tankers International to assess and understand the carbon footprint of its pool and offer its customers a facility to compensate their unavoidable value chain emissions.
The process is not onerous. Vertree uses scientifically recognised methodologies and proprietary data to calculate an emissions baseline on a per voyage, monthly or annual basis. Customers can then choose from a range of nature-based options to compensate the carbon footprint, tailored to price, geographies and impact targets.
These range from afforestation projects in Uruguay to avoided deforestation and degradation in Cambodia. All projects promote a positive social impact, meeting multiple Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nations (UN SDGs). To ensure the highest levels of environmental and social integrity, all Vertree projects are verified and certified by third parties, including the Verified Carbon Standard; Architecture for REDD+ Transactions; Gold Standard; and Climate, Community, and Biodiversity Standard.
Matthew Smith, Senior Vice President Commercial & Operations, Tankers International, commented: “We have been working hard to bring a climate compensation voyage programme to customers through an accurate and transparent mechanism, and are delighted to have found such a trusted, experienced and progressive partner in Vertree. The project further enhances our relationship with Hartree Partners, which joined our VLCC pool in 2019, as one of the original members of Tankers International’s dedicated scrubber fitted VLCC Pool.
“As an organisation, we recognise that the world is changing fast and the energy transition is something we need to embrace and adapt to. With the cost of fuel and the cost of using carbon only set to rise, this partnership will provide a high quality, cost effective and transparent solution to compensating currently unavoidable voyage emissions, contributing to overall efforts to reduce the environmental impact of global supply chains. While compensation is not the total solution to GHG emissions reduction in shipping, it can play an immediate and meaningful contribution to efforts to reduce cumulative emissions in the atmosphere – helping to prevent catastrophic heating while the industry pursues efforts to reduce its actual emissions.”
Ariel Perez, Managing Director at Vertree, added: “The use of carbon climate compensation is becoming increasingly important, as companies look to meet higher ESG standards from their customers, as well as meet ever tighter compliance standards. Our agreement with Tankers International allows us to support organisations that charter cargo and catalyse environmental action that’s increasingly demanded by their customers. Although within value chain emissions abatement should remain the priority, nature-based compensation is among the most scalable and effective way to reduce emissions, protect and restore biodiversity and support the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.”
Tankers International, the world’s leading shipping pool for VLCCs, today announced the launch of its new improved VLCC fixtures app. The latest version of the popular app delivers enhanced functionality and value to shipowners, charterers and brokers – reflecting increased demand for more intuitive, actionable fixture data.
First launched in 2014, the app is the only source of such comprehensive fixture data – otherwise only distributed to a select few brokers. Since its inception, the App has staggering usage levels; downloaded by more than 25,000 individual users including investors, brokers, charterers, and shipowners for complex forward planning that improves their profit margins.
The upgrades provide superior functionality, including an easier to navigate interface across different platforms, as well as improved search options based upon region, age, and operator-based data segmentation – making it quicker and easier to find the actionable information that users need.
The new app can be accessed directly from any web browser on any modern device, without first being developed for, and downloaded from any proprietary app store. This creates a smooth cross platform experience for users, and will allow Tankers International to more quickly and efficiently develop even more improvements in future. All previous and new users will be able to access core information provided by previous versions of the App for free, while enhanced paid for options will be available to subscribers.
Charlie Grey, Chief Operating Officer, Tankers International, commented: “It has been incredibly rewarding to see the app grow since it was first launched in 2014, and how it has demystified the VLCC market for shipowners, brokers, charterers, and investors. The new version of the app underpins Tankers International’s status as a leading hub for tanker knowledge, providing unique data and analysis that has real commercial value users.”
“At a time when great uncertainty persists in the tanker market, the reintroduction of the App with unique data and analysis is both timely and important, delivering operational advantages and real commercial value that can help users navigate changing dynamics and charterer requirements in the VLCC segment.”
The newly launched version of the Tankers International VLCC fixtures App can be downloaded as an “in-browser” app here.
