Dry Bulk Shippers to Coordinate Chartering

Five dry bulk shipping firms, including shipping tycoon John Fredriksen's Golden Ocean will form a new venture to coordinate chartering services, hoping to reduce costs in a fragmented market, the firms said in a joint statement.

The firms, including Golden Ocean, Bocimar International, CTM, Golden Union Shipping and Star Bulk Carriers will form Capesize Chartering Ltd., aiming to start up operations by the second half of February.

"The parties operate in the highly competitive and fragmented capesize industry, and neither party owns, controls or manages sufficient capesize vessels to provide competitively priced bids and efficient trading and operations to serve its customers," the firms said.

"The new company will combine and coordinate the chartering services of all the parties," they said. "For the customers this represents the benefit of a wider geographic area in which vessels can be made available and with shorter spread between loading dates."

Reporting by Balazs Koranyi