Iran, Singapore eye joint tanker line
Iran’s media said on Monday that the country has signed a major cooperation agreement with Singapore which could lead to the development of a major tanker service for shipping oil products and petrochemicals from East Asia to as far as West Africa.
The agreement has been signed between the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) and Singapore’s Pacific International Lines (PIL).
IRISL chief Mohammad Saeidi has been quoted by the media as saying that Iran’s shipping lines by virtue of the agreement will connect East Asia to West Africa.
Saeidi added that this will not only lead to a rise in Iran’s state revenues, but will also expand the capabilities of the East Asian shipping services.
He further emphasized that the commodities that will be shipped through the joint line with Singapore will be petrochemicals and oil products.
Other reports in the Iranian media said the agreement signed between IRISL and PIL calls for the establishment of feeder lines in Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, the Black Sea and beyond.
The agreement that was signed during a three-day visit to Tehran by Singapore's Trade and Industry Minister S Iswaran further calls for providing shipping services to container and wholesale lines as well as cooperation over building ships as other key themes of the agreement.
IRISL’s current fleet includes 160 container vessels, dry bulk carriers and tankers with a capacity of over 5 million TEUs, which the company plans to expand. In October, IRISL chief Saeidi said it was seeking to expand its fleet of container ships by 579,000 TEUs by 2020.
Saeidi said negotiations were underway with both foreign and domestic yards. The official has said his company wanted to put out orders for Triple E vessels which can carry more than 18,000 containers.
Iran’s biggest operator has 41 container ships of up to 14,000 containers, but IRISL wants to join the big league and Triple Es are a priority, he said.
Once it has built up a sufficient capacity, IRISL plans to forge an alliance with the world’s top 15 container operators which control the busiest trade routes by sharing vessels, networks and port calls.
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