Nordic Tankers & Borealis Maritime merge

NORDIC Tankers and Borealis Maritime are to create a 50/50 joint venture, called Crystal Nordic that will engage in the short sea, ice class chemical tanker trade in the Baltic and northwest European market.

The new company will take over the respective ice classed stainless chemical tankers businesses from its owners, which currently operate under the Nordic Tankers and Crystal Pool trade names, reported Tanker Operator.

Crystal Nordic will control a fleet of 15 x 4,000-11,400 dwt stainless steel ice class 1A/1B chemical tankers, performing in excess of 600 voyages annually. The joint venture aims to commence trading in the first quarter of 2016, subject to approval by the competition authorities.

Combining the fleets of both tanker operators will enable Crystal Nordic to increase operational efficiencies by reducing ballasting and idle days, improving utilisation of capacity and enabling new voyage combinations.

"The partnership is an important step in Nordic Tankers' growth strategy to obtain critical mass in core markets. The strong consolidation move will simultaneously improve our offering to customers and strengthen the financial sustainability in all our global activities," Nordic Tankers' CEO, Per Sylvester Jensen, was quoted as saying.

Crystal Nordic will be headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark, and operate under the Danish tonnage tax system. All current staff members in Crystal Pool will be offered positions in Crystal Nordic.

Jan Eghoj will be appointed Crystal Nordic's managing director. He is currently vice president, global operations at Nordic Tankers.