UK shipbroker Clarksons has unveiled the results of its latest dry cargo diploma session in London, with participants battling to impress the London shop’s judges.
The event, now in its 12th year, attracted a record 30 attendees at Commodity Quay in London.
The week-long programme is available to Clarksons employees and clients who are in the early stages of their careers.
This year, staff came from the company’s Athens, London, New York, Oslo, Rio and Singapore offices.
There were also 20 client representatives who had travelled over from Europe, China, Australia, the US and Brazil.
Tutorials are given in commercial, financial, operational technical and legal aspects of the business.
The programme was led by Alex Gray, who spent his early career as a Clarksons dry cargo chartering broker before helping to establish the company’s pioneering presence in the forward freight agreement market.
The highlight was the hotly contested “Dragons Den” competition where five teams were asked to prepare and pitch an employment strategy for a mixed fleet of bulkers spanning the capesize, panamax and ultramax/supramax sectors, drawing on the information provided on the physical freight and futures markets during the course.
Each group was given 10 minutes to pitch their ideas to Clarksons’ four Dragons: Gray, secondhand broker Ben Edwards, handymax divisional director Fraser Lane and panamax broker Tom Harker.
“The competition was very tight, with close scoring from the four Dragons,” Clarksons said.
Detailed analytics
The winning group was Gaul Shipping & Trading, which stood out for the comprehensiveness and professionalism of their presentation, backed by detailed analytics, the brokerage said.
The Jon Marshall Trophy was awarded to Sven Annen from Viterra as the best course participant.
Malcolm Willingale, Clarksons head of learning and development, said: “This year’s course was both intensive and enjoyable, with participants fully engaged throughout the formal taught sessions and group exercises.
“The curriculum covered key topics such as futures, laytime and demurrage calculations.”
The course included a mix of sessions taught by Clarksons department heads, external industry-leading professionals, workshops and breakout sessions on topics such as compliance, green transition, ship life cycles, voyage estimation, bills of lading and letters of intent.”
