Durban — South African shipping group Grindrod is taking full advantage of the international shipping boom, taking delivery of the third of seven new double-skinned, sophisticated tankers ordered from a South Korean shipyard.

Oliphant, a 37000-ton deadweight products tanker, was delivered to Grindrod subsidiary Unicorn Shipping last week and will trade worldwide within the Dorado products tanker pool. The pool is managed by Heidenreich Marine in Darien, Connecticut.

The new tanker enters service amid a major global shipping boom. Grindrod took an aggressive decision several years ago to invest in new product tankers at a time when the industry was struggling.

That foresight has seen the shipping group beat its opposition in terms of having available ships for the market and will be instrumental in enhancing Grindrod earnings in the years ahead.

Grindrod MD Ivan Clark said the new tanker entered service as the shipping climate favoured owners of double-skinned tankers.

Earnings and values for this class of vessel were firm and the market outlook was encouraging. "At the time Grindrod ordered these tankers, average daily earnings in the spot market were $14500 a day. The current daily rates are well above $30000 and even time charter rates are now up by more than 50% over the same period," he said.

Although the market has been bullish for several months pushed by seasonal demand during the northern hemisphere winter, a statement by the shipping brokers Clarksons said that "the trend would continue well into 2008".

A shortage of US refinery capacity and growing demand for refined products could not be fulfilled in the medium term, as environmental lobbies had curtailed the expansion of North American refineries.

Clarksons said China would continue absorbing large volumes of imported energy, most of which was being hauled from Singaporean and other oriental refineries.

Clark said that, on many of today's important trade routes, the movement of cargo in doubleskinned tankers was mandatory and single-skinned vessels would be phased out over the next few years. "This has increased orders for these vessels to the extent that most shipyards capable of building them have full order books well into 2008."

This had also "substantially increased" the value of Unicorn's fleet of six larger tankers, a small coastal tanker and another four long-term chartered products tankers, as well as two chemical tankers in the Stolt chemical tanker pool.