Four chartering staff have left Oldendorff Carriers to join d’Amico Dry Cargo, which aims to grow its business in niche trades in the supramax segment.
The departures include Mehmet Karabulut, Oldendorff’s director of supramax business in Singapore, who leaves the German owner-operator after nine years.
He will be joined by supramax chartering managers Hugo O’Reilly and Gareth d’Silva in Singapore, and Hilo Fujimoto in Melbourne.
The foursome will join d’Amico Dry Cargo, the bulker arm of Italian shipowner d’Amico Group, by the end of the year.
Group CEO Cesare d’Amico confirmed the appointments.
“Since the beginning, d’Amico Dry has been mainly an owner with time by time a good presence as a niche operator,” he said.
It has 45 bulkers in its core fleet and operates another 15 units.
These operated vessels are mainly panamaxes carrying grain from the east coast of South America to the Middle East and South East Asia, and serving contracts of affreightment in the Far East, d’Amico explained.
“It is, therefore, our intention to grow more on niche trades in supra/ultra[max] trade continuing to be strongly present as tonnage provider for our main customers, but it is not our intention to become an asset-light operator,” he said.
d’Amico Dry has 16 supramax and ultramax vessels, nine of which have been chartered in on long-term contracts.
It also has two newbuildings under construction in China for delivery in 2026 and 2027.
In June, d’Amico Dry fixed the 79,463-dwt panamax Cape Kourion (built 2010) for one year from Lomar Shipping at $14,600 per day from mid-July.
Fixtures data shows d’Amico Dry occasionally dips into the spot market, usually for panamax and kamsarmax bulkers.
It chartered the 81,788-dwt kamsarmax Taho America (built 2019) from Taiwanese shipowner Ta Ho Maritime in June for a round trip in the Pacific, carrying grain from the US to Asia.
d’Amico Dry has 23 kamsarmax, post-panamax and mini-capesize bulk carriers, just over half of which are chartered in.
At the smaller end of the spectrum, it owns three handysize bulkers and has another on long-term charter.
d’Amico Dry also oversees d’Amico Dry Maroc, which operates a container liner service in the Mediterranean Sea.
