Germany's Ernst Russ Shipbroker (Russbroker) is expanding its commercial boxship pool into the Asian market.
The Hamburg-based shipbroker has added two feeder vessels from the fleet of the Dubai-based Transworld Group into its ERS Feeder Pool.
The 1,028-teu OEL India and OEL Colombo (built 2008) joined the pool at the start of the month.
The ships are trading in the Bay of Bengal on charters to Mediterranean Shipping Co (MSC).
Asian move
Ramesh Ramakrishnan-controlled Transworld has opted to farm-out commercial management of the ships after selling its liner shipping operation to Dubai ports and shipping giant DP World.
In August, Transworld sold its Indian coastal and export-import feeder operations of Transworld-owned Shreyas Shipping & Logistics to DP World-controlled Unifeeder.
But the transactions excluded ships and the bulk business.
Transworld has taken advantage of a move by the German company to enlarge its membership base to include Asian shipowners.
Russbroker was formed in August 2013 by a merger of the feeder department of Peter Dohle with the shipbroking departments of Stuewe & Co and Ernst Russ.
The merged entity continues to oversee the 15-year-old feeder pool which operates a large number of short-sea and feeder vessels of around 1,000 teu.
These are commercially managed on behalf of around ten European shipowners, some of whom joined the pool this year.
But increasing amounts of charter business is being conducted outside of Europe and specifically in the Caribbean and Asian regions, said pool manager Sascha Juhasz.
He added that the inclusion of Transworld's feederships would diversify the pool membership.
Recovery in sight
Transworld has entered the ships into the pool at a time when rates for smaller feeder boxships are showing early signs of recovery.
Only nine vessels of 800 to 999 teu are out of work today, compared with 13 at the end of September, according to Alphaliner.
Transworld owns around 20 ships from small feeders through to classic panamax size.
Its largest vessel is the 4,872-teu OEL Badrinath (ex Ontario II, built 2009), which the company acquired earlier this year.
The vessel is the third traditional panamax boxship operated by Transworld, which two years ago purchased the 4,252-teu sister vessels OEL Jumeirah and SSL Brahmaputra (both built 2003).
