MEXICO: Another chemical shipper has left Connecticut for Texas: Navig8 has been setting up offices here recently.
Navig8’s transfer from the leafy confines of Westport, Connecticut, to an office in the busy Galleria area of Houston is the latest in a trend that began only about a year ago.
That’s when chemical shipping giant Stolt Tankers announced a similar pullout.
Chairman Niels G. Stolt-Nielsen said at the time that their move to the Texas port city was hard to argue against.
“Our customers are in Houston, the chemical industry is in Houston, and our ships call in Houston,” Nielsen said.
Unofficially, Stolt brokers and other sources said the move had been talked about for at least a decade but had been delayed because the company’s top performers and management did not want to leave Connecticut.
That reluctance may explain why four other chemical shippers – BLT Chembulk, Fairfield Chemical Carriers, MTMM and Team Tankers – remain in Connecticut and are unlikely to transfer to Texas.
“They’re close to New York. Connecticut is wonderful in the fall,” a Houston ship broker explained. “But when you look at the hard commercial aspect of it, your entire client base is here. There are so many companies in Houston that are central to petrochemical shipping. If you need to be near your client base, you need to be here.”
The southwest corner of Connecticut – which includes Norwalk, Wilton, Westport and Southport, where the remaining chemical shippers are located – is within a 30- to 45-minute drive to New York City.
While New York is a major chemical port in the Americas, the largest share of US chemical traffic now is in Houston, one of the largest petrochemical hubs in the world. For chemical shippers based in Connecticut, much of their business comes and goes from Houston.
Navig8, which is headquartered in London, did not respond to questions about its US operations move in time for publication.
However, employees in the Houston office confirmed that the transfer from Connecticut was ongoing and should be completed soon. Navig8 had 17 vessels operating during the three months ended 30 September, according to an earnings release, and the company has contracted to buy 19 more by September 2017.
