In its half year 2018 report, the company made a series of announcements on various terminals across the globe.

It will expand its chemical terminal in Merak, Indonesia with 50,000 m3 to 131,000 m3 of capacity. Merak is the main chemical import port of Indonesia and has the highest concentration of petrochemical facilities. The expansion is expected to be commissioned in the first quarter of 2020.

Vopak will also invest in its Europoort terminal in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, to support the IMO 2020 sulphur fuel cap. This investment is supported by customer commitments and will be completed in the second half year of 2019.

Additionally, it will strengthen its chemical storage globally by investing in a new jetty at Vopak Terminal Linkeroever in Antwerp, Belgium to enable planned future growth. Also, a major service improvement project will start at Vopak Terminal Penjuru in Singapore to service the chemical market in the country.

The company will also conduct a strategic review and ‘test the market value‘ of its terminals in Algeciras, Amsterdam, Hamburg and Tallinn.

The company reports an EBITDA of €371 million compared to €394 million in the same period of 2017. Its occupancy rate of 86% is attributed to lower rented capacity mainly at the oil hub terminals caused by a less favourable oil market structure. Other product market segments showed continued stable demand for storage services.

The financial performance in 2018 is expected to be influenced by currency exchange movements of primarily the US dollar and Singapore dollar, and the currently less favourable oil market structure, impacting occupancy rates and price levels in the hub locations.

Its expansion programme for 2019 will add 3.2 million m3 with high commercial coverage and the company projects it has the potential to significantly improve its 2019 EBITDA results.

CEO Eelco Hoekstra says: ‘Given the market conditions to date, the results delivered are satisfactory.

‘We have successfully gone live with our new digital terminal management system in Long Beach and Los Angeles marking the start of our global roll out.

‘In our oil hub terminals, the priority was to invest for the IMO 2020 bunker fuel regulations. Our terminals in Fujairah, Rotterdam, and Singapore will be fully ready to support new market requirements.

‘In Saudi Arabia, together with our partners, we commissioned the last part of the industrial terminal Chemtank. The construction of our new industrial terminal in Pengerang is progressing well and first commissioning will take place end of 2018.

‘Our business development efforts in gas terminals have seen excellent progress. We announced the entrance in the growing LNG market in Pakistan, and the signing of two new joint ventures to develop LNG terminals in Germany and China.

‘In total, we currently have more than three million m3 under construction. We find this the natural moment for a strategic review and test the market value of our terminals in Algeciras, Amsterdam, Hamburg and Tallinn. This review is full in line with the focus on growing our portfolio with the four strategic terminal types (major hubs, gas & LNG, industrial terminals, distribution in major markets).‘

—————————-

TankTerminals.com – Research, Market and Expand Your Presence within the Tank Storage Industry. Learn more.