Germany’s Arkon Allied Container (AAC) is expanding its commercial chartering operation to around 100 feeder containerships.
It has added more vessels to its growing commercial desk, including four feeder boxships from Briese Schiffahrt and Borchard Lines.
The move comes as a handful of German owners that already have vessels with AAC have taken a shareholding in the Hamburg shipbroker and pool manager.
Leer-based Briese is committing two 2007-built geared feederships to the AAC chartering operation.
They are the 698-teu Skogafoss, which is equipped with two 40-tonne cranes, and the 679-teu Samba, which has two cranes of 60-tonne lifting capacity.
UK-based Borchard Lines has also committed two smaller Damen 800-type vessels to one of the AAC pools.
The 803-teu Miriam Borchard and Susan Borchard (both built 2010) will operate in a pool with vessels that specialise in handling 45-foot containers.
The feedership owners that have signed up as shareholders of ACC are mostly based in the Haren (Ems) region of northwestern Germany. They include Alexander Bolle-led TS-Shipping, Peter Frese-led Elbdeich Reederei, Reederei Wegner and Reederei Bernd Sibum.
The move strengthens the shareholding base of AAC less than a year after it was formed in mid-2018 with a fleet of around 85 containerships from feeder sizes up to 3,400 teu.
The new shareholders join founding partners Jebsen Shipping Partners (JSP), HS Schiffahrts, Reederei Jungerhans, Wessels Reederei and Nordic Hamburg.
Before the formation of AAC, the fleets of those five companies were marketed by Hamburg’s Allied Feederships Chartering (ACT) and Haren’s Arkon Shipping.
AAC is headed by former ACT managing director Wolfgang Klodwig and Ole Gabs, who was head of Arkon Shipping’s container desk.
The two colleagues previously worked together for a decade at former German shipbroker Stuwe & Co, where they handled ships for AAC’s shipowning members, including the families that formed JSP.
AAC operates its fleet evenly between spot, medium-term and long-term charter.
Many of the vessels are operated in two pools, one of which is dedicated to ice-class ships in the 1,000-teu segment. The second pool focuses on vessels that can handle 45-foot containers, including ships of the Hegemann RW 850-type design, such as the 974-teu Spica J (built 2007).
AAC is carving a niche in the LNG-fuelled segment, where it was the project manager for 1,400-teu vessels ordered by Finnish owner Containerships.
The first — the 1,400-teu Containerships Nord (built 2018) — was delivered last December. Three more in the series are set to be delivered to shipmanager Nordic Hamburg in the coming months from Guangzhou Wenchong Shipyard in China.
Containerships was acquired by CMA CGM last October. Since then, a fifth and sixth vessel have been ordered for delivery in 2021. The German government recently awarded subsidies for a seventh and eighth vessel, although the contract for these final two ships has not yet been firmed up, TradeWinds understands.
AAC also handles commercial management of the 1,036-teu Wes Carina (built 2011), the first in a series of SSW 1000 ships to be converted to dual-fuel gas operation.
