Naming ships after the members one of the world’s most famous rock groups was always likely to make some noise.
So the arrival of the 12,248-dwt multipurpose (MPP) vessels Mick, Keith, Ronnie and Charlie — named after the Rolling Stones — might help put dship Carriers on the map.
The Mick (built 2019) was delivered to the German operator in April, and the arrival of the Keith later this month will take the project cargo specialist's fleet to almost 10 vessels.
The Ronnie and Charlie should be delivered next year.
Scrubbers shunned
None of the vessels have scrubbers, but fuel consumption of the F-500 is "so good" that bunker costs are kept to a minimum, global vice president Lars Feller said.
Dship's goal is to double its fleet within three years. It plans to have up to 20 MPP and heavylift ships, according to Feller.
The company is expanding as its rivals are withdrawing from the sector.
Recent additions include MPPs taken on time charter from north European owners.
But its most eye-catching newcomers are the series of four newbuildings ordered by Zeaborn at China’s Taizhou Sanfu Shipbuilding.
Speaking from new offices in the Speicherstadt district of Hamburg, Feller explained the newbuildings are opening new avenues of business. They are equipped with two 250-tonne cranes with a combined lifting capacity of 500 tonnes.
Opening new doors
Dship previously operated a small fleet of vessels fitted with cargo-lifting capacity of 240 and 360 tonnes.
We are going into another league of cargoes. It gives us an opportunity to load larger, heavier and ideally better paying cargoes
Lars Feller
The higher lifting capacity opens the door to larger and more profitable cargoes, Feller said. “We are going into another league of cargoes. It gives us an opportunity to load larger, heavier and ideally better paying cargoes.”
But the goal is not to compete with heavylift specialists, such as Jumbo, BigLift Shipping and SAL Heavy Lift.
Feller has overseen the expansion since joining the Hamburg office in March last year.
Growth has been possible with the backing of Deugro Group of Switzerland, which is owned and managed by Thomas Press, who founded dship in 2015.
Feller said the shareholders are committed to sustainable growth and finding ships at the right price.
Their first acquisitions were the 12,592-dwt Sophia and Josef (both built 2011) — which are fitted with two 180-tonne cranes — bought early last year from Hansa Heavy Lift in partnership with Haren-based HS Schiffahrts.
Further expansion could include time charters, buying resales or purchasing secondhand vessels.
We need a certain market presence, and now, with almost 10 ships, we have that
Market presence
“We need a certain market presence, and now, with almost 10 ships, we have that,” Feller said. “And we want to grow a bit more. Our target is to reach 15 to 20 ships in the next three years.”
Ownership of the vessels is an important sign of commitment to the MPP industry, Feller said. “That’s an important message to send to clients — certain companies disappeared and we grew.”
Dship has made that possible by expanding the list of shipowners from whom it sources time-charter vessels.
These include the 12,652-dwt Louise Auerbach (built 2007), taken from Hamburg-based Auerbach Schifffahrt, and the 12,744-dwt Oslo Fjord 1 (built 2009), from Oslo Bulk Shipping.
Staff expansion
Dship has also been able to make the best of opportunistic recruitment of staff from companies that have withdrawn from the sector, such as Hansa Heavy Lift.
This has boosted its workforce to 24 people.
“He [Feller] hired staff with good standing in the industry,” a German source said.
Dship is also expanding geographically and expects to open an office in Shanghai next month.
Two new chartering managers have been recruited for the office: Alex Wang and Garon Jiang.
“China is still considered to be the world’s fastest-growing economy. With Alex and Garon on board, we can now offer our services directly to our Chinese clients. We are looking forward to a successful collaboration,” said Feller.
It recently opened an office in Mumbai and appointed Ibrahim Khan as chartering manager.
Feller said that dship was profitable last year and describes its performance this year as “quite good”.
But he concedes that the MPP and project markets remained “tough”.
“Maybe this is normal, and we have to adjust to this,” he said.
