November 9, 2015 [OPIS] - Stronger demand for oil product storage has driven utilization of Vopak's European tank farms in the first nine months, while business in China and Singapore slackened, the Dutch company said Friday.
Average occupancy at its own facilities nudged up over the three quarters by 3 percentage points year-on-year to 92%, excluding joint ventures and associates, reaching 93% in the third quarter.
“Q3 was characterized by continued slow growth in advanced economies, while dynamics in emerging-markets further weakened and contango in the oil markets persisted,” Vopak said in its interim report.
“This reflects a healthy demand for storage in the majority of our terminals in all divisions, even though we faced continued challenging economic and business developments at specific terminals in China and Singapore.”
The upward trend was led by its Dutch business, which had users for 94% of tank space in January-September, 7 points more than a year earlier, given a “positive sentiment in the market for oil products, primarily in the
Netherlands.” A 9-point increase to 92% was recorded in its Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) division, excluding Dutch sites.
While utilization in the Americas was stable at 90%, demand in Asia dropped 7 points to 88%, reflective of lower rates in China and Singapore that the operator attributed mainly to “a competitive and dynamic spot market and changes in the product mix.”
The group’s owned, associated or operated storage capacity rose to 34.1 million cbm by end-September, marking a net gain of 0.3 million cbm versus end-2014 and of 1.1 million cbm from a year earlier.
Newly commissioned capacity in the year-to-date include six pressurized storage bullets at Flushing in the Netherlands (36,800 cbm), the first phase (1C) at Pengerang in Malaysia (413,000 cbm), incremental space at Montreal East in Canada (48,200 cbm) and a joint venture terminal in Chinese Hainan (1.35 million
cbm).
Also, a Vopak associate in Saudi Arabia is to acquire a 348,000-cbm tank farm to supplement a port terminal with 220,000 cbm currently under construction.
Reducing the capacity count were terminal disposals in the USA (300,700 cbm), Sweden (1.26 million cbm) and Finland (175,400 cbm).
Current projects under development are expected to add 4.6 million cbm of capacity to Vopak-run facilities in the coming years, bringing the total to 38.7 million cbm by end-2019.
