Pressure for profit rather than scale is changing the activity of Chinese leasing houses, a leading player says.
This is opening the door for a larger number of shipowners and also driving independent shipowning moves, according to at CMB Leasing executive.
Friday Wang, head of the Greek and UK shipping team at CMB Leasing, told Marine Money in London: “From our perspective in the future leasing houses will face more challenges.
“In the past few years we expanded our portfolio, in the future we will be more focused on making profit.”
The company has $5.5bn in its leasing portfolio and a fleet of more than 180 vessels.
Wang told the Dorchester Hotel conference the initial focus was on top-tier clients but this has now shifted to second-tier owners.
“Top clients we always make very limited profit and now the company requires us to make more profit so gradually we move to tier-two clients,” he said.
Leasing houses, including CMB, have also been ordering bulkers to their own account in order to generate greater returns, Wang said.
“The reason we are doing this is we want to make more profit in the future,” he said.
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