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A NEW LEASE ON LIFE LEASING • ALBATROSS TANK-LEASING IS PROVING THAT THERE IS MORE TO THE LEASING BUSINESS THAN OFFERING TANKS IN BULK AND IT IS LOOKING TO BUILD ON THAT APPROACH
company has had delivered recently), ALBATROSS has had some tanks built elsewhere. He has also been talking with Van Hool in Belgium, although any tanks built there will have to be high-specification units. But then that is what ALBATROSS is about: “If you just want a tank, don’t come to us,” Schoeler says. “Come to us for better tanks!”
THE BUSINESS OF TANK container leasing should – and can – be more than just moving money around, says Christoph Schoeler, CEO of Willich, Germany-based ALBATROSS Tank-Leasing. This was a belief he developed over a 20-plus year career with Transamerica Leasing and Exsif Worldwide so, when the opportunity to make a change arrived, he grasped it gladly. ALBATROSS Tank-Leasing was formed to plug a gap in the service network of Sinochem Logistics and from the start was servicedriven. “We wanted to do something useful for the industry,” Schoeler says. “We want
With that mission in mind, ALBATROSS set about building an appropriate fleet of tanks, leasing mainly directly to chemical shippers. That process has continued since the acquisition of Sinochem Logistics by the Junzheng Energy and Chemical Group in July 2019 and its integration into the newly formed Gentco Logistics group. ALBATROSS Tank-Leasing now has around 10,000 tank containers under its wing, of which some 7,000 are used exclusively in China. The fleet is split roughly 50/50 between standard units and specials: swap tanks, lined, heated and gas tanks, including
PARTNER FOR GROWTH That approach runs right through the organisation. ALBATROSS aims to be a partner to its chemical manufacturer clients. “They need our logistics expertise,” Schoeler explains. “They need dedicated, special tanks – and they need in-house control.” ALBATROSS handles all the tank-related issues, such as fleet management, servicing, testing, repairs and tracking and tracing, and all the shipper has to do is arrange transport - and can choose its provider. “Going to a tank operator does not give that level of control,” Schoeler says. ALBATROSS has found a lot of interest in
to make the customer’s life easier.”
specialised LNG tanks. Not surprisingly, most of these are Chinese-built, though Schoeler says he is keen to broaden the manufacturing slate and, during the recent surge in ocean freight rates, when it has become very expensive to move an empty tank from China to Europe (not least the 40-foot LNG tanks the
its concept, lying somewhere between the ‘traditional’ lessor and the tank operator. The company provides a dedicated structure, with its digitised systems giving the shipper full visibility of their tanks’ location, temperature and other metrics, with alarms when something is out of step.
ALBATROSS MAKES A POINT OF HAVING A WIDE RANGE OF SPECIAL TANKS AVAILABLE
HCB MONTHLY | NOVEMBER 2021
