Anthony Veder takes over commercial management of five new gas carriers from Gatx. Credit: Anthony Veder.

Dutch shipping firm Anthony Veder has signed an agreement to acquire the five gas carriers from GATX Corporation.

Under the contract, the gas tankers will start operations in the company’s gas fleet from this month.

With the latest deal, the Netherlands-based liner has further bolstered its position as a liquefied gas shipping company.

The company currently operates a fleet of 38 carriers, which are used to transport ethylene, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and liquefied natural gas (LNG).

Earlier, the gas carriers were part of the Norgas pool and will be renamed starting with Coral.

Three out of five vessels will be used to carry LPG and petrochemical gasses including ethylene.

Each of the other two gas carriers has a capacity of 10,000m³. They will also transport liquefied natural gas.

Anthony Veder CEO Jan Valkier said: “We have a strong position in both the LNG and petrochemical market.

“Expanding our fleet with these five combined gas carriers is a great opportunity with which we can offer our customers even more flexible services.

“With the addition of the LNG carriers we boost our LNG trading fleet to ten vessels in sizes between 5,800m³ and 30,000m³.”

The first vessel named Coral Alameda has a capacity of 8,500m³ and was built in 2003. While the 8,500m³ Coral Orinda was built in 2002, and 10,200m³ Coral Shasta in the following year.

Coral Fraseri and Coral Furcata each have a capacity of 10,000m³ and were built in 2010.

In March, Anthony Veder received two 10,000m³ combined gas carriers in Coral Favia and Coral Fungia, which have been deployed to carry LNG and petrochemical gases such as ethylene.