Pressurised Trading

The first pressurized vessel operated in Singapore lay the foundations for the start up of the Singapore office in 1995. Since its inception the Pressurized Group has seen many peaks and troughs from the initial rush to import product into China via small terminals and off floating storage vessels to seeing China curtailing imports and starting to re-export. Whilst the market moved so did Petredec as the importance of developing relationships and understanding the business cultures of the Chinese, Thai, Philippino, Vietnamese and Indonesian market players became paramount in developing business. As the South East Asian Markets have developed they have gone through a huge transformation as they switch their emphasis from a dependence on small pressurized cargoes to importing larger refrigerated cargoes into the newer Fully Refrigerated storages on both land and via Floating Storages off the coast of Vietnam and Indonesia, for example.

As Crude Oil and Naptha prices have risen in recent times the price of Lpg has become cheaper in comparison and countries such as Singapore and Thailand with the ability to feed the Lpg into the Naptha crackers have done so resulting in less Lpg cargoes available for export. The contraction in both supply and demand of pressurized Lpg in the region has meant that Petredec have had to adjust accordingly. The company has looked at opportunities in other niche markets such as the Indian Ocean and Australasia as well as consolidation on our core shipping business both on time charter and via contract of affreightment. In addition the advent of stricter Oil Major Approvals on vessels, Petredec has had to dedicate a huge amount of time and energy making sure that the Fleet is compliant with the requirements of the Oil Majors or clients who require such approvals to run their business.

The contraction in the pressurized Lpg market has resulted in Petredec expanding their activities in the Petrochemical sector, which is now the major employer of pressurized shipping in the Asian region. Although not in a Trading capacity, Petredec is a major force in this sector as it has adapted and diversified away from its dependence on Lpg Trading and Transportation.

Petredec sees the flexibility and performance developed over the last decade as a leading reason for why the company will play an important role in both the Pressurized Lpg and Petrochemical markets in the years to come.