Erasmus Shipinvest, a low-profile maritime outfit based in Athens, unveiled its first container ship, saying it hopes to further increase its exposure to the sector.
“Despite the recent downward corrections of container shipping markets, Erasmus Shipinvest Group has spared no effort to get the first ever — hopefully first of many — feeder container ship newbuilding,” the company said in a statement published on social media on Thursday.
TradeWinds already reported in December last year that the company was planning to diversify its existing stock of dry cargo carriers with LPG tankers and feeder container ships.
Erasmus quickly moved into LPG, acquiring the 5,000-cbm Astrid (built 2010) from Geogas Trading in February.
However, Erasmus’ container ship plans had been wrapped in secrecy so far.
The company’s statement on 13 October reveals that it and its unidentified business partners placed a newbuilding order at Kyokuyo Shipyard in Japan — the 1,096-teu Feeder Ace (built 2022), of which they just took delivery.
S&P Global Markets Intelligence lists the vessel as under the ownership of Panama-based Mi-Das Line, a subsidiary of Japan’s Doun Kisen.
Linger giant CMA CGM is listed as the ship’s operator.
“We do hope to see her [the Feeder Ace’s] long-term sustainable operations and good trading performance for our premier customers on their liner trade lanes,” John Su-led Erasmus said in its statement.
Conservative strategy
Erasmus seems to apply to container ships the same, conservative policy it has been pursuing in bulkers. Erasmus is known to serve commodity traders with fixed time-charter rates on a long-term basis.
Last week, Erasmus announced it established a separate affiliate to provide services to such clients. The new unit is called Erasmus Bulk Trading SA (EBT) and is headed by chief commercial officer Andres Francke out of Copenhagen.
Erasmus did not elaborate in its statement on how and when it plans to expand further in container ships.
Information on the S&P Global Market Intelligence and Clarksons data platforms suggests the company and its partners may have at least one more such vessel in the pipeline.
The shipping data providers list a similarly named sistership newbuilding as ordered at Kyokuyo, called the Feeder Blossom. The ship is listed as due for delivery in January 2023, also against a charter with CMA CGM.
Clarksons lists both the Feeder Ace and Feeder Blossom as ordered by China’s Goto Shipping.
Faith in feeders
Container ship earnings have plummeted recently from the vertiginous heights they had reached in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
This fall has caused concerns in some parts of the industry.
However, some analysts have pointed out that modern feeder container ships have a good chance to find lucrative employment in parts of the world where there will be a shortage of such ships.
In a sign of such confidence in the sector, Greece’s Contships Management acquired a quartet of such vessels from Lomar Shipping late last week.
