Stena Bulk A/B and palm oil production giant Golden Agri-Resources Ltd (GAR) announced today they have set up a new 50-50 joint venture to take over four 50,000 DWT product tankers ordered by Stena Bulk last summer. The newly formed joint venture is named Golden Stena Bulk and the ships will be built at China’s Guangzhou Shipyard International (GSI) with the first delivery expected in spring 2014.
The vessels will be deployed in Stena Weco’s logistic system in the global market and managed by Stena-owned Northern Marine Management.
In June 2012, Stena Weco – the joint venture between Stena Bulk and Danish Dannebrog – formed a 50-50 joint venture with GAR. The joint venture, Golden Stena Weco, was aimed at providing an overall solution for GAR’s international transportation of its palm oil products.
“Golden Stena Bulk can be seen as the second step in our collaboration with leading palm oil plantation company, GAR. For us, it’s also a gateway to Asia,” says Erik HÃ¥nell, President & CEO of Stena Bulk. “Such strategic partnerships are a well-tried concept for us and involve coordinating complementary assets, know-how and experience. With GAR’s robust network and intimate knowledge of the region, this strategic partnership gives us greater access to the Southeast Asian market as well as to local competence,” says Erik HÃ¥nell.
Jesslyne Widjaja, Vice President of Corporate Finance of GAR, welcomes the new joint venture as a further collaboration with Stena Bulk. “With our rapid growth, it is critical that GAR achieves maximum synergies by collaborating with best-in-class shipping partners to secure the safe and efficient transportation of our products,” concluded Ms. Widjaja.