A new bulker pool is promising to offer Japanese owners an alternative employment opportunity to their traditional long-term time-charter business.

The Maruklav pool was announced in January by Norway’s Torvald Klaveness and Japanese trading house Marubeni.

The panamax and post-panamax venture draws together the Marubeni-run MG Harrison Shipping Pool and Klaveness’ data-driven Baumarine pool.

MG Harrison was started in 2016 by Marubeni’s grain department. The New York-based pool operated panamaxes mainly for the trading house's own cargoes and grew to 15 vessels, of which about half were Marubeni-controlled ships.

But the new pool will have an initial combined group of 30 panamaxes, and hopes to achieve improved ship utilisation through its larger scale and Klaveness’ digital approach.

The joint venture believes another key benefit is that it brings together Marubeni’s knowledge of Pacific trading patterns with Klaveness' expertise in the Atlantic.

Marubeni’s Masashi Kobayashi, who will be deputy managing director of the pool, said: “On the operation side, MG Harrison’s cargo base has mainly consisted of in-house grain trade patterns centred on South America and trips from the US to the Far East.

“By partnering with Baumarine, we will add about 15 more ships of European and Middle Eastern origin, which, combined with Baumarine’s focus on Atlantic operations, creates the ideal scenario for the development of synergies.”

Relationship capital

The idea is to grow the pool by drawing in tonnage from around the world. In addition, Marubeni also works closely with the Japanese maritime community.

Kobayashi said the company’s "relationship capital" will help attract tonnage from Japan, which has one of the biggest dry bulk fleets in the world.

He added that the Maruklav pool will offer alternative employment opportunities for Japanese owners, who can no longer rely on traditional long-term time-charter business with local operators.

“In Japan, the traditional model of owners entering into long-term time charters with Japanese operators is now on [the] decline, especially after the radical shift in the market during the Lehman shock years,” he said. “Now, market players demand shorter-term deals or index-linked rates.

“We believe that our pool model constitutes another attractive employment option for owners to consider, not only as a co-shareholder, but also as a shipowner participant.

“Marubeni is convinced that with the combined expertise and infrastructure of our partner, Maruklav will constitute a safe, transparent and sensible option for our customers’ ships.”

Kobayashi added that the most important aspect is not where the tonnage comes from, but that pool participants share the same vision as Marubeni and Klaveness.

“The key point is Klaveness and Marubeni share the same view on the shipping business, where we need to utilise digital technology," he said.

“We would like to invite shipowners as partner participants who share this vision and mission to our platform.”