TotalEnergies' Geneva-based Totsa trading unit has taken delivery of a newbuild bitumen tanker from a Chinese shipyard, the first in a series it has ordered.
The 7,850dwt Beluga is likely to be deployed in Europe when the bitumen demand season gets underway in February-March. Its first cargo is expected by market participants to be shipped to Nigeria from Hainan's Yangpu port, site of Chinese independent bitumen producer Chambroad's refinery.
Beluga will be followed by 7,850dwt new-build Feresa, which will be operated by Totsa when it is delivered, probably by end-January. Feresa is also likely to be deployed in Europe-Africa, although that is unconfirmed.
TotalEnergies will take delivery of a third 7,850dwt bitumen tanker during 2026, and two 17,000dwt bitumen tankers that are scheduled to be launched in late 2026 will be managed by Switzerland-based shipping firm ABC Maritime.
The newbuilds are part of a number of such vessels that some shipping participants said could lead to oversupply and lower bitumen tanker freight rates in the Mediterranean, northwest Europe and for Africa-bound movements.
Dutch bitumen supplier Van der Lee, which operates a storage terminal at Dordrecht, Netherlands, and supplies bitumen by truck to Benelux buyers, is awaiting delivery of a newbuild, 8,800dwt vessel from another Chinese shipyard. The Elisabeth had been ordered by and delivered to Chinese shipping firm Cosco. Van der Lee was then due to take it on under either a straight purchase or a long-term chartering arrangement, with the aim of using it for cargo movements into Dordrecht and other regional destinations.
The new vessel is will eventually replace the 4,232dwt Elisabeth J, which has this year been making regular shipments between northwest Europe and Scandinavia. Van der Lee is seeking to compete more effectively in Benelux markets, northwest Europe and the Nordics as Rubis Asphalt readies to take over, from 1 January, supply, throughput and storage operations at Dutch firm VTTI's 60,000t ATPC bitumen terminal at Antwerp, under an initial five-year contract.
Market participants are waiting to see how Vitol, which had been operating ATPC for several years, will manage its truck and cargo sales in northwest Europe.
The Elisabeth was to have loaded a first cargo in November in Asia-Pacific, a regional market participant said, but that this had been delayed. Van der Lee is understood not to have taken delivery of the tanker yet, and vessel tracking shows it arrived this week at Tanjung Langsat, Malaysia, site of Trafigura's bitumen terminal.
Van der Lee has not commented on the new tanker or arrangements under it expects to operate.
