Finnish/Swedish consortium orders Panamax pair

Concordia Maritime signed an agreement to participate on a 50/50 basis in a consortium, which will own two Panamax product tankers built to Finnish/Swedish ice class 1A specifications and ordered by Concordia Maritime.

A 10-year time-charter agreement has been signed with the Finnish energy group Fortum. The vessels, which will be named Stena Polaris and Stena Poseidon, will transport primarily Fortum?s refined products from the Baltic Sea to the North American market.

The tankers will be built at the Brodosplit shipyard in Croatia where six ice-strengthened Stena P-MAX product tankers are currently being built for Concordia Maritime. The new tonnage has been developed in close collaboration between Brodosplit, Stena Teknik and Fortum and deliveries will take place in 2006 and at the beginning of 2007.

The 75,000dwt newbuildings will each cost an estimated $46 million, have a length of 228 m, a beam of 32 m and have been specially designed for traffic in difficult ice conditions in the Baltic Sea. The bridge, as in the case of the MAX tankers, will be built according to Stena?s ?co-pilot? design with a 360° view for enhanced safety in narrow waters. The vessels will have full double hulls, i.e. a double hull protecting not only the cargo tanks but also the fuel tanks and lube oil tanks.