Broström vessel named "Ship of the Year"

BRO DELIVERER, the first of Broström's four new D-class vessels, is the only tanker to be named "Ship of the Year" by Lloyd's List, the internationally leading daily journal of the shipping industry. As a basis for its decision, the jury studied a range of factors, including innovativeness, safety, environmental aspects and operational efficiency.

"This award is not only an evidence to the fact that Broström's vessels are at the cutting edge of ship design. It is also an affirmation of Broström's long-term strategy, in which the customer's transport needs are central to the entire operation – from placing of newbuilding order to the daily work on optimising transport patterns," says Broström's CEO, Lennart Simonsson. Broström's D-class vessels are a new generation of product tanker that are built according to Broström's own design along with specifications developed in dialogue with the company's customers in the oil industry. The customers have provided information on their future distribution systems, cargo sizes, product mix, refinery capacity, and terminal capacities and limitations. Broström's D-class vessels are the first tankers to be built according to DNV's "Clean Design" class. Qualifying for this class requires that the vessels have minimal emissions to the air and sea during operation as well as in the event of an accident. For example, all diesel engines have been fitted with catalytic converters to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions. Safety has been improved and secured by fitting the vessels with twin propulsion systems. The vessel design incorporates enhanced safety features for narrow and heavily trafficked shipping lanes. The efficiency is optimised by modern systems for fast cargo handling. Broström's D-class vessels are being built at the Jinling shipyard in Nanjing, China. BRO DELIVERER is scheduled for delivery in March, and the other three will follow in 2006 and early 2007. The "Ship of the Year" award was announced by the Lloyd’s List Awards 2006 on 23 February in London. For further information on Broström's D-class vessels, visit Broström's website: www.brostrom.se. For further information on Lloyd's List, visit www.lloydslist.com. Göteborg, Sweden, 24 February 2006 BROSTRÖM AB (publ.) Reference: Lennart Simonsson, President and CEO, tel. +46-31-61 61 00 More information about Broström can be found at www.brostrom.se