Klaus Oldendorff would have loved to have focused solely on tankers, but he always recognised the need to diversify into other market segments, says managing director Kurt Klemme.
Hence, the company’s fleet now also includes boxships and bulkers.
But Reederei Nord has also been aware of the need to have sufficient mass in individual markets to be recognised, says Klemme, who remembers a meeting a long time ago with boxships giant Maersk Line, which asked "what is the name of your company?"
“They said ‘10 containerships, you are not relevant to us’. So we [realised] we had to group together,” Klemme says.
Hence the birth of O&S Chartering with Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement in 2013 and, two years later, Hanseatic Unity Chartering (HUC), bringing together chartering interest, including a means of agreeing between partners how to employ any unpooled vessels.
Reederei Nord had worked with Bernhard Schulte on purchasing for many years and together in the joint S Pool for containerships since 1997.
“Suddenly, the chartering guy at Maersk said, ‘I am in Hamburg. Can I visit you?’”
Similar path
The same path has been followed by MPC Group, with its entry into commercial management by acquiring Contchart, and by Blue Net Chartering, the container chartering joint venture between Costamare and Peter Dohle Schiffahrts.
HUC means Maersk Line can be assured 100% that ships will perform their charters because its partners are all financially sound, says Klemme. Borealis, for example, is backed by US private equity giant KKR, Asiatic/Atlantic Lloyd by the Bunnemann family and Reederei Nord by the Oldendorffs.
The partnership is a main tonnage provider now for Maersk Line and CMA CGM, among others, with its fleet of mostly 1,700-teu, 2,500-teu and 3,500-teu feeder vessels.
“We co-invest between 15% and 50% in a vessel, so we have this alignment of interest we can offer to the corporate investors,” Klemme says.
“But we never get more than the market. Shipping is so transparent, so fragmented.
"The advantage to us is we can optimise our employment, we have less idle time... There will be changes in partners but that is normal and healthy for an organisation.
“Partners have a share in the company according to the number of vessels, which every year they can ask to be adjusted.
"Senior personnel are seconded by each partner. Operational staff are employed by the company [HUC] and cost is shared.”
