Bulker giant C Transport Maritime (CTM) welcomed its clients and partners in Japan earlier this month for a party in Tokyo that has been three years in the making.
Around 150 guests from Japanese trading houses, charterers, brokers, shipyards, local owners and leasing companies convened for cocktails at the Peninsula Hotel on 15 March.
The reception had been set for 2020 but the small matter of an international pandemic delayed proceedings.
Chief executive John Michael Radziwill took to the podium to thank guests for their support over the past two decades.
“We are very happy and very proud to be in Japan as the best ships, shipping companies and people working in them come from Japan and there are two reasons for that in my mind. Honour and respect. Those are the foundations of great relationships,” Radziwill said on the night.
“We see CTM’s future as one that includes our Japanese partners and friends, and we look forward to expanding upon existing relationships and creating new ones.”
Strength in numbers
The group’s long-standing relationship with Japan is borne out in the numbers. The firm said that over the past 20 years, it has completed 30 sale-and-purchase transactions with Japanese counterparties. It has also conducted 300 years’-worth of long-term charters with local owners and trading houses, spanning 46 vessels with 23 different owners.
The evening was the fourth such event CTM has hosted in Japan, the two most recent ones having taken place in 2017 and 2018.
Japanese companies including Itochu Corp; Orient Marine Co, Daiichi Chuo Kisen Kaisha, Hayama Shipping, Marubeni Corp, Fukujin Kisen, NYK and Mitsubishi were all represented at the event.
“At CTM we are honoured to have great relationships with many of you. With some of you we have done business with for a very long time. With others, we are just starting and with others, we hope to expand,” Radziwill told guests.
“Special thanks to all the trading houses we work with for all the support over the last 20 years and trusting the CTM team all along.”
The Monaco-based CTM group comprises public arm GoodBulk, investment vehicle Stone Shipping and CTM’s commercial management activities.
