Editorial:

Scandinavian leadership

Tankers are no less than the key to the world. Whatever we do in our daily lives or daily business, a tanker has been involved! Did you know that around 80 per cent of our cars were carried on a chemical tanker? And naturally, when the cars are manufactured, some of the expensive liquid carried on a tanker around the world is needed: petrol, diesel and other products, which all make the world go around.

When you buy a plastic toy for your child, it also all started in liquid form and with a ride on a tanker. The vital trade with Nafta from the Arabian Gulf to Japan provides the raw material for almost all plastic products in Japan. The Scandinavians have always been on the forefront of the tanker business. The Danes control a huge fleet of modern product tankers. They also created a new tanker giant in the Clipper Wonsild Tankers. Swedish owners on Donsö have built up a large fleet of product carriers over several decades and so on. Skilled personnel and high standards of performance and maintenance have become a kind of brand for the Scandinavians. And technology as well.

A large number of technicians are working daily with new products to do with all aspects of sailing a tanker, to improve its performance and profitability to stay ahead of the competitors in the daily fight to find the next deal. The Scandinavians have also been ahead as regards laws and regulations on the tanker business.

Early on, they were working with the IMO to create safety standards in order to rule out old tankers, giving more space for the more expensive newbuildings, which dominate the Scandinavian controlled fleet. Politicians have encouraged owners to work for high standards via the Port State Control System, helping to get rid of the older units with lower standards in ports around the world.

The single-hull phase is over, and new standards are even knocking on the door. Soon it might not only be a double hull, but maybe also a double engine plant and double engine rooms to provide as much redundancy as possible in all kinds of situations.

Tankers are a vital business for the Scandinavian owners. And transportation of the high-value liquid cargo is vital for the cargo owners and their insurers, and that’s why the tanker business is vital to the Scandinavian owners/operators. Not because the Scandinavians are the only ones in the world capable of working with liquid cargos, but because they have decided that this area is worth the attention and effort.

Bent Mikkelsen , Editor