STX Pan Ocean aims big

STX Pan Ocean Co. aims to reach sales of $1 billion in tanker operations by 2010 as its first two petrochemical product carriers built by affiliated STX Shipbuilding recently entered service. The new 46,000 DWT vessels were named STX Ace 1 and 2.

The shipping company plans to get three more similar-sized ships delivered from STX by next February and increase the number of its tankers, including VLCCs, from the current 14 to 30 by 2010.

STX Pan Ocean said it will strengthen tanker and LNG carrier operations, allowing STX Shipbuilding to accumulate experience in manufacturing large tankers. The trade between the two companies will rise as STX Pan Ocean needs to find new growth engines other than bulk carriers and foreign shippers are, at the moment, reluctant to order high-value added ships such as LNG carriers from STX Shipbuilding.

With the addition of two large product carriers to its lineup yesterday, STX Pan Ocean aims to increase the share of tanker operations to 5% of its total sales. Formerly an operator of smaller ships under 20,000 DWT, STX Pan Ocean plans to expand its existing routes to Southeast Asia and China.

With support from the shipper, STX Shipbuilding plans to enter production of LNG carriers, car carriers and large oil tankers this year to become the No. 4 shipbuilder in the world. Having received technological certification for building LNG carriers last year, the nation’s seventh largest shipbuilder expects to get an LNG carrier order from its associated company by the end of March.

As it is difficult to expand its 660,000 sq. metre dockyard on the southeastern tip of Jinhae, STX Shipbuilding is currently considering setting up maintenance shops and block-building factories in China, possibly in the eastern provinces of Shandong and Liaoning.