The hellespont group of Greece, which traces its beginnings back to the formation of Papachristidis Co Ltd at Montreal, Canada in the post-war period, is expanding its fleet with a number of newbuildings, including the recently delivered Hellespont Credo. The company has a further eight 17,000 dwt chemical carriers on order, along with six platform supply vessels (PSVs), all due for delivery by 2010. Currently operating 15 crude, long-range product and chemical tankers, Hellespont surprised the shipping world in 1999 by ordering four 442,000dwt ULCCs from South Korea, the largest ships that had been built since the ULCC boom of the 1970s, when French yards turned out 550,000dwt leviathans.
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