It has been nearly a year-and-a-half since Buana Lintas Lautan (BULL) president-director Kevin Wong first indicated to TradeWinds that he was interested in diversifying from tankers into dry bulk.

He believes the timing may now be right for the company to make this long-awaited move.

Prices for bulkers aged between 10 and 15 years — the kind BULL is interested in buying — have come down significantly, and the market is flooded with plenty of Japanese-built tonnage that owners are seeking to shed as they come off long-term charters.

When Wong mentioned a possible move into dry bulk in February 2019, he was keen on tapping into the Indonesian coal trades. Today, he is much keener about the international markets.

“The domestic coal market is very crowded,” he said. “There are too many hungry players in it. We don’t want to rely entirely on that.”

Wong’s current idea is for BULL to take advantage of low vessel values and gradually begin to build up a fleet of handymax and supramax bulkers, while at the same time gaining experience in trading them internationally.

“We want to build up our competence and be ready for when the government reapplies its 'Beyond Cabotage' regulations,” he said.

Beyond Cabotage is the name given to the Indonesian laws stipulating that export coal cargoes must be shipped on Indonesia-flag vessels.

The law was to go into effect on 1 May 2018, but implementation was delayed by two years after concerns were raised on whether Indonesian shipowners would be able to provide the required number of ships needed to handle the country’s exports.

The laws were again due to go into force this past May but, after the same concerns were again raised, they were revised at the 11th hour so only coal-export cargoes of less than 15,000 tonnes would have to be shipped on Indonesia-flagged vessels.

Its current form allows for a gradual step-by-step increase up the size range, giving the domestic shipping industry time to build up the necessary resources and expertise.