British Ship Owners

[grant8064]

Hi all.

I'm not a regular on here I know but I wondered if some of you would like to give comment/opinion on this topic as I am not connected to ship owners, charterers, brokers etc.

Given that Union Transport have gone bust, Charles M Willie are selling a couple of vessels for whatever reason and Faversham Ships have had a recently noted incident with Beaumont I wondered what the health of UK registered coastal cargo ship owners/operators is like. I'm particularly interested in UK ship companies given that I live in the UK and get occassional chances to see Torbulk operated and other vessels in local ports.

I know that shipping in general is not too perky but companies like Wagenborg seem to be making it pay so wondered how the UK companies were faring.

Any comments welcomed.

Thanks guys.

[ozzy76]

 Carrisbrooke shipping seems to be doing okay..
I reckon it depends on how big their ships are..
Wagenborg, Carrisbrooke , now have ships capable of world trade as well as coasters.

To make money out of European short sea , I reckon you need ships of at least 4,000 DWT.

And I guess the success of a company is down to whether they can afford to buy such ships.
If they have to borrow a lot of the money, then probably, with the current freight rates, they can't make the investment pay back more than the loan will cost.

However, on the other hand..Ships are priced low, due to the downturn.
But coasters have bee going up in size...quite a few coasters are 12,000 DWT. and Handysized bulkers will be used as coasters..It's economies of scale.

[Rexroth]

I'm not sure where you are coming from, grant8064. Yes, Willie have sold ships but they have also bought a ship. They are always updating their fleet, so I don't really know why you say "for whatever reason". Have you watched their fleet change over the last 20 or so years? If so, you will see how they have steadily upgraded. I fail to see the relevance of the Beaumont incident. That has no bearing on the success of the Faversham fleet. Union Transport - well let's wait and see on that one. There are new British coasting companies such as Exe Shipping.

Comparison with Wagenborg is a nonsense. That company has a huge base in the Netherlands and is involved in road transport and warehousing. It is not just a shipping company. You must also realise that shipping is financed differently in the Netherlands (and other European countries) where the tax system encourages small investors to be part owners of ships. In these difficult times, however, even some of those companies have struggled. A good example is JR Shipping of Harlingen. Despite having a fleet of modern container vessels, some of the individual owning companies have gone bankrupt with their ships laid up and sold. Carisbrooke has a Dutch offshoot which has also faced some problems.

In answer to your question, UK companies are doing quite well despite a total lack of support (or even interest) from government of any political persuasion. The UK has never had a transport policy. The environmental merits of waterborne transport are apparent but largely ignored by politicians. They are keen to talk the green talk - but action is a different matter.

[grant8064]

Hi guys, thank you both for your replies.

Just to get it clear there is no biased or angle to my question Rexroth, i'm really only a novice when it comes to research/interest in ships and being quite young in comparison to some I don't have the best knowledge of years gone by.

You both make some good points about Carisbrooke & Wagenborg having and using larger ships than some of the smaller firms have available for short sea transport...for some reason I ALWAYS thought 4000dwt was about max for Europe to Europe transport so my eyes are a bit more open.

Part of the reason for my questions was just a general interest and there is rather a lack of info on company websites...Willie Group update their vessel open slots so it's interesting to see the movements of their ships but Faversham and even big guns like Carisbrooke seem to ignore updating their news pages and such. I guess as a business the time and resource understandably has to be spent on earning money and not satisfying those of a curious nature! 

I mention the Beaumont incident purely because issues like that can have a big swing in the fortunes of a small company and are always disconcerting to read. Glad to hear it's probably of little consequence to the overall business.

Finance is an interesting point made too. I have never managed to understand why there is so little interest from government with regards to shipping. It's reliable, cost effective and eco friendly...from a government point of view it ticks ALL of the boxes but is never promoted on any level. In fact at the age of 28 I don't think i've ever heard it mentioned.

Once again thanks for your replies, if anyone else has any comments/thoughts about UK short sea companies in general or anything else to add please do.

Thanks