April 4 - Fairstar Heavy Transport has signed two marine heavy transportation contracts with GAC's Aberdeen office.
Fairstar's semi-submersible vessels FJORD and FJELL will transport a flotilla of 42 tug boats from Singapore to Maracaibo, Venezuela in April and May of 2011. Both vessels are now mobilising to Singapore.
Chris Muilwijk of the Fairstar Client Services Group said: "The safe, secure loading and transport of these tug boats from Singapore, around the Cape of Good Hope to Venezuela requires precise planning and seamless operational execution."
The company's operations and onboard teams will be required to perform complex manoeuvres to safely load and unload such a multitude of floating objects.
Ingmar den Blanken, Fairstar's treasurer and financial controller, highlighted the financial contribution of these two contracts for Fairstar in 2011. "Fairstar is now projecting minimum operating revenues of USD40 million for our 2011 Financial Year as a result of these new contracts. We expect to formalise the recently announced LOI for the transport of fertilizer plant modules from Kenai, Alaska to Koko, Nigeria in the next ten days. This USD25.5 million contract as well as the previously signed transportation contract with DSME, relating to the CLOV FPSO project in Q4 of approximately USD4.7 million, combined with 2011 Q1 revenues of USD1 million will exceed USD40 million for the year. There are still some gaps in our schedule for the rest of 2011 which may allow further improvement."
Fairstar's CEO Philip Adkins summarised the importance of the two new contracts by stating: "The doldrums of the current spot market for marine heavy transport continue to be characterised by a shortage of cargoes, excess capacity, and savage discounting by our competitors. Our financial performance and low vessel utilisation rates in Q4 of 2010 and Q1 of 2011 reflected this dangerous and unsustainable situation. These new contracts with GAC have an immediate impact on our vessel utilisation and cash flow. It is a relief to see the remaining three quarters of 2011 are now filling in and we are less than a year away from starting our work on the USD 90 million, multi-voyage, multi-vessel Gorgon LNG Project."
