Chemical tanker

Tankers intended to transport products with appreciably severe environmental and safety hazards requiring significant preventive measures to preclude an escape of such cargo.

Tankers intended to transport products with sufficiently severe environmental and safety hazards to require a moderate degree of containment to increase survival capability in a damaged condition.

Consequently, many ocean going chemical tankers may carry numerous different grades of cargo on a single voyage, often loading and discharging these "parcels" at different ports or terminals.

This means that the scheduling, stowage planning and operation of such ships requires a high level of coordination and specialist knowledge, both at sea and on shore.

Charterers or the end users of the ships include oil majors, industrial consumers, commodity traders and specialist chemical companies.