EDIT: This post was written as a reply to an earlier contribution, posted by Pieter Inpyn. His post has now been removed and not by me. (PM)
Pieter, you have raised the following points:
The difference between categories is gone, yes but it was never there for tankers built before 1970, and did you have problems with that?
How do we see the correct category for the tanker sector in the new situation? Simple, it is the age bracket, like with all other categories, where age brackets are being applied.
How do I know the type in the new structure?
That is a point where we have worked hard in the past to make that visible, by systematically identifying the tankers suitable for products/chemicals/ crude oil versus crude oil only. The problem with tankers is their flexibility and also the great difference in tank layout. coatings, use of stainless steel etc. Furthermore during its span of life tankers tend to get employed in lower segments then they were designed for, for instance coatings could be deteriorate to such an extent that the ship can only carry black oil products to keep on trading. And yet it would still be in the same category in the old system. Look also at the many smaller easy chemicals/product tanker that find life extension by using them as bunker tankers. To end all the discussions about what a photo represents in terms of tanker type at the moment that the shot was taken, we have decided to go to age brackets and put some main categories together.
And therefore we do encourage people, like many do already, to make a description of the ship that would include some words about the actual usage of the ship. And yes, people who are interested can find more information elsewhere, for instance by looking at sites of the classification societies, etc. We also have now the possibility to amend the ship type in our own database system (based on the GT Data) where we can amend the ship-type as deemed appropriate, and even in more detail by adding IMO classes for chemical tankers, market identifier such as MR/LR1 LR2 Aframax etc, so the fear of losing sight of what the ship actually is, should not be exaggerated.