Low-profile London owner Unity Maritime is taking the first steps to fleet expansion through a crew management joint venture with Singapore’s Synergy Marine.
Unity, owned by Danny Ungar, is targeting up to 50 dry bulk carriers through new operation US Crewing Services in Varna, Bulgaria.
US Crewing Services, which is formed by subsidiary Unity Ship Management and Rajesh Unni’s ship-management giant Synergy, will focus on existing Unity Maritime and Synergy vessels initially.
Unity — rebranded from DAO Shipping this year — owns 18 handysizes, supramaxes, ultramaxes and kamsarmaxes built between 2012 and 2019.
The company is part of investment outfit Unity Group, which also has extensive property interests.
Unity is in the process of buying the 60,400-dwt ultramax Nord Everest (built 2016) from Norden in Denmark.
It is being renamed the Unity Adventure and will join the fleet as ship number 19 in November.
Danny Ungar is the son of Abraham ‘Rami’ Ungar, the low-profile shipowner who owns Ray Car Carriers, a tonnage provider which has a fleet of 65 car carriers on charter to many of the world’s leading operators.
Ray also has two 2020-built VLCCs chartered to Trafigura, and has eight LNG-capable car carriers on order, according to industry databases.
TradeWinds is told Unity will fulfil its “bold” growth ambitions with secondhand buys and eventually the crewing of third-party vessels.
Seafarers will be employed from India, the Philippines, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Bangladesh and Georgia.
Training and development prioritised
The two companies said the aim is to increase operational efficiency and uphold “the most thorough standards of maritime safety”, with investment in training and development.
Varna was chosen because of its pool of crewing personnel and access to the wider Balkans and eastern European regions.
The first vessel — Unity’s 36,900-dwt Unity Moon (built 2019) — has now been taken over by US Crewing Services.
Unity Ship Management managing director Nikolay Petkov said US Crewing Services will offer “dedicated and tailored crews, enhanced training and seamless operations to customers”.
Ajay Chaudhry, co-chief executive of ship management at Synergy, said: “By combining the technical and crewing expertise from both sides and harnessing Synergy’s global reach, we aim to offer unmatched services.”
