Collusion course

摘要

According to Clarkson Research Studies, the chemical tanker fleet numbered 2,045 ves-sels at the start of this year, an increase of 4.7 per cent on the figure a year earlier. In tonnage terms, the fleet grew by 7.5 per cent over the same period to reach 29.02m dwt. These data, published in Clarkson's annual Chemical Tanker Register, exclude specialist vessels such as those dedicated to the carriage of molten sulphur, methanol, acids and asphalt. Of these, perhaps only the methanol fleet could be included, which would add another 32 ships of an aggregate 1.08m dwt-figures unchanged from the beginning of 2002. Clarkson remarks on the growth in new orders last year, spurred largely by the regulatory fallout from the Prestige and Erika inci- of deliveries into the chemical tanker fleet over the course of 2002 that, by the start of this year, the volume of tonnage on order had fallen from 6.7m dwt to 6.3m dwt.