Norwegian shipping company Siem Offshore has decided to take another two Anchor Handling Tug Support (AHTS) vessels out of the market and place them in cold lay-up, due to the soft market conditions.
The shipping company said on Monday that, by doing so, it is now trading only three out of ten AHTS vessels in the North Sea spot market.
In its third quarter 2015 report on Thursday, the company said that in addition to Siem Aquamarine and Siem Diamond being laid-up in the third quarter, one more AHTS would be placed into lay-up in the fourth quarter.
Siem said that the North Sea spot market for AHTS vessels and Platform Supply Vessels (PSV) has continued the negative trend from the previous quarters with softening rates and decreasing utilization.
“Vessel owners continue to put vessels into lay-up and additional lay-ups are expected. We see similar trends worldwide, and the outlook for the OSV market is expected to remain challenging for several years, ” the company said.
In the third quarter, Siem Offshore reported 56% utilization of its AHTS fleet.
The company on Thursday also posted a loss of $9.8 million for the third quarter of 2015, compared to $18.5 million profit in the same period last year.
Offshore Energy Today Staff
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