The New York-headquartered Norvic Shipping expands its tanker division and becomes a ship owner by acquiring “Pro Alliance”, a 105,348 deadweight aframax LR2 tanker from South Korea’s SK Energy.
The acquisition of this vessel, which has been renamed Norvic Monia, sees Norvic owning its first ship outright, marking a strategic shift from an operator to owner-operator model.
The acquisition of the tanker is also a return to Norvic’s origins, as the New York-headquartered company was launched as a tanker operator in 2006 before diversifying to dry bulk in 2012. Since the expanding to dry bulk, Norvic has grown into a US$1.3 billion+ turnover company it is mentioned.
While deploying the vessel Norvic Monia on routes around the world, Norvic will consider buying more tankers to grow its fleet.
“Going back to our roots and growing the tanker division makes strategic sense given the combination of the ongoing global need for crude oil and finished products and shortage of tonnage in the tanker sector,” said AJ Rahman, Group Chairman and CEO of Norvic.
Meanwhile, Norvic is pushing ahead with plans to take delivery of three newbuild dry bulk vessels from Japanese yards, which have been taken on long-term charters.
This includes two handymax ships from Onomichi yard and one ultramax from Imabari yard. All these vessels are expected to be delivered between the third quarter and the fourth quarter of this year.
The company is also in talks to take further newbuild dry bulk vessels on long-term charters.
