Dship Carriers is planning more vessel acquisitions as part of an ambitions fleet-expansion programme.
The German multipurpose (MPP) ship operator intends to grow through acquisitions of either secondhand tonnage or newbuildings, says global vice president Lars Feller.
“We have no target in that regard,” he says. “Whether we’ll have a fleet of 15 to 20, we don’t know."
“But if there is the opportunity to purchase further ships, be they new or secondhand, we will at least look at it.”
Feller, who joined the Hamburg office in March after several years with Coli Group, says dships Carriers will operate a mix of owned and time-chartered vessels, mostly taken on long-term employment.
If you believe in shipping, if you believe it [the recovery] will continue, then the right time is now
It will also fix vessels short term on an opportunistic basis when cargo is available.
Motivation behind investment
He points to the recovery in the MPP sector over the past 12 months as motivation for investing.
“If you believe in shipping, if you believe it [the recovery] will continue, then the right time is now,” he says.
Dships, which is part of the Press family’s Deugro Group, has already made a couple of secondhand buys this year and will be taking delivery of four newbuildings being built in China.
The 12,592-dwt Sofia and Josef (both built 2011) were acquired in the first quarter of the year from Hansa Heavy Lift in partnership with Haren-based HS Schiffahrts as co-investor.
Since then, dships has acquired four 12,500-dwt, F-500 type vessels originally ordered by Zeaborn that are under construction at Taizhou Sanfu Shipbuilding.
The vessels are equipped with two cranes of 250-tonne lifting capacity. A second hold, with a length of more than 75 metres, allows for the loading of extremely long cargo under deck for more stowage options.
January delivery
The first of the ships, which have been specially developed to reduce fuel consumption and to increase stowage flexibility, is slated for delivery in January with the others scheduled to follow later next year.
Dship has opted to focus on vessels with lifting capacity up to 500 tonnes.
“That is the right place for us to be,” he says.
Feller rules out any interest in vessels with cranes of 700 to 800 tonnes, though it is difficult to find good ships of this type.
“Then if there were good ships you would automatically compete with Jumbo, BigLift and SAL, and that is definitely a different league,” he says.
