Dry bulk shipping giant Cargill Ocean Transportation saw a strong year in 2022, as it took advantage of cyclical tailwinds powering the bulker sector.
But speaking to TradeWinds in an interview, president Jan Dieleman referred to the positive financial performance as if it were but a footnote to other metrics, ranging from customer feedback to diversity.
“We had a very strong last 12 months, and I think many, if not all, of the indicators I would probably call green,” he said.
Cargill Ocean Transportation operates a fleet of 700 ships, serving parent Cargill and third-party customers. Most of the fleet is made up of chartered-in bulkers, although the company also runs product tankers.
As with much of shipping, the firm operates in cyclical markets, and Dieleman said many companies in the space have had tailwinds over the past 24 months that have delivered outsize returns.
His comments provided a rare peek at the financial performance of the shipping outfit. Privately owned Cargill, an agricultural and commodities giant headquartered outside of the US city of Minneapolis, no longer reports detailed financial reports.
Its annual report issued last summer offered only a single financial figure for the fiscal year ending 31 May. Revenue across the global commodities group rose 23% to $165bn, but it did not say how much of that was in its shipping unit.
But for Dieleman, Cargill Ocean Transportation’s positive financial year was secondary to other measures, such as the growth of its new initiatives and employee engagement.
“Some people will probably talk about financial results first,” he said. “For me, financial results are a lot of times the result of all the other things. So if you do all the other things right, then I think you have some financial results.”
Asked what were his measures of success, first on Dieleman’s list was feedback from its customers, with the freight provider asking what it does well and what it could improve.
He said the company got both positive feedback and what he described as “constructive criticism”.
The executive also pointed to the growth in the company’s new initiatives. He referred particularly to its Pure Marine Fuels joint venture with Maersk Tankers. Launched in 2021, the bunker procurement services outfit is aiming to grow its business from 3.5m tonnes per year at its start to 7m tonnes per year in two years, in addition to a goal of building its biofuels business.
He said Cargill Ocean Transportation got high marks in its internal gauge of employee engagement.
“We’re actually quite proud of that,” Dieleman said. “And what I’m even more proud about is that people dig in into the areas where we can do better. So there’s really this culture of continuing to be better tomorrow than what we are today.”
He said that the shipping unit made good progress in the first seven to eight months of last year in improving the diversity of its workforce.
But the Cargill Ocean Transportation president acknowledged there is still work to be done on that measure.
“We’re still far from where we need to be, but we’re making progress there,” Dieleman said.
Julian Bray contributed reporting to this story.
