Russia’s Universal Solutions Group (USG) has emerged behind a fleet of bulkers under two companies called Rostrum, associated with Turkish and German technical and commercial managers.
Sources familiar with USG’s business, along with publicly available information, link the company to Rostrum Ship Management, based in the UK with vessels managed through Germany, and Rostrum Fleet Management, based in Bulgaria with ships managed through Turkey.
Clan Shipmanagement — a Turkish management company of unknown ownership, with obscure but very active clients — has also grown since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
USG itself has been in business since 2008 as a Russian dry bulk chartering operator. It formerly operated through a company called Rivertrade Group as an agent and today through Solar Marine Agency from bases including London, Moscow, St Petersburg, Sofia, Dubai and Singapore.
LinkedIn pages of several Solar Marine Agency management and chartering staff show them previously employed at Russian bulker owner Pola Maritime.
The two Rostrum entities trade predominantly Russian cargoes, according to AIS information.
In the West, the Rostrum Ship Management vessels include five in the technically managed fleet of Hamburg shipping stalwart H Vogemann, plus at least one newbuilding set to be delivered from Zhejiang East Coast Shipbuilding.
Separately, the Rostrum Fleet Management ships include at least three in the fleet of Istanbul-based Clan Shipmanagement (Klan Gemi Yonetimi).
Founded early last year, Clan has rapidly built up a managed fleet from undisclosed or obscure owners.
The English-German fleet
In the UK, three Russian nationals — Anton Shostak, Konstantin Ilin and Aleksey Bondarev — are recorded as “persons with significant control” over two companies, Rostrum Ship Management UK Ltd and Solar Marine Agency Ltd UK.
UK Companies House gives a contact address at an accountant’s office in Ipswich, England, but UK operations are based in London.
Shostak and Bondarev are listed as residing in Russia, and Ilin in Switzerland.
Two well-informed sources believe USG, Shostak, Ilin and Bondarev are not under any form of sanctions.
Companies House lists well-known shipbroker Jeremy Swales as a director of both, but TradeWinds understands he resigned from the companies after the invasion of Ukraine.
Swales, who formerly headed Braemar dry chartering in London and subsequently a dry operation for Switzerland’s Riverlake, was unwilling to comment to TradeWinds on Rostrum.
USG was approached for comment through a generic company email account, but no contact information was readily available for its three principals.
The H Vogemann ships associated with the UK-based Rostrum entity include the Taizhou Sanfu-built, 63,000-dwt ultramax Rostrum (built 2021); the Jiangsu New Yangzijiang-built, 40,000-dwt handysizes Rostrum Asia, Rostrum Europe (both built 2021), Rostrum Africa and Rostrum America (both built 2022); and the 40,000-dwt open-hatch handy Rostrum Australia (built 2023), listed as part of H Vogemann’s newbuilding programme.
All are under the Liberia flag, classified by Lloyd’s Register, and insured by protection and indemnity club Skuld.
An H Vogemann official declined to comment.
Vessel reference source IHS Markit records the Rostrum, Rostrum Asia and Rostrum Europe as having been owned by Irish-domiciled lessor-owner Traffer Aircraft Leasing until April 2022.
The aircraft lessor’s former maritime fleet otherwise included two panamaxes bought from Russia’s Sovcomflot in 2021: the 74,500-dwt Egor Letov (ex-NS Energy, built 2012) and 74,600-dwt Viktor Tsoi (ex-NS Yakutia, built 2013).
These subsequently appeared in the fleet of the other, Bulgarian-based Rostrum company.
The Bulgarian-Turkish fleet
Meanwhile, the Rostrum Fleet Management ships under the banner of Istanbul-based Clan Shipmanagement are part of a more mixed fleet.
Bulker manager Clan has grown rapidly with the absorption of several fleets purchased by itself or its clients, including bulkers formerly owned by Sovcomflot and four of the ships from last year’s capesize sale-athon by Monaco’s Goodbulk.
It is not clear how many of at least 20 Clan-managed ships have ownership or trading relations with USG or Rostrum.
Explicitly linked to Rostrum Fleet Management by one or more standard reference sources are the former Sovcomflot panamaxes Egor Letov and Viktor Tsoi, as is the 28,300-dwt multipurpose ship USG Zurich (ex-Huanghai Developer, built 2013).
But the extent of USG’s links to Clan itself and Clan’s fleet are uncertain.
USG and Rostrum Fleet Management list the same Sofia office address as Clan’s Bulgarian branch, according to data cited by IHS, Equasis and maritime credit reporter Dynamar.
