Intership to start cement-ship pool
A specialist bulker company has kicked off plans with orders in China.
TRADEWINDS 04.05.07

Intership to start cement-ship pool
A specialist bulker company has kicked off plans with orders in China.
Intership Navigation of Cyprus and its US division, United Bulk Carriers, are close to launching a cement-carrier pool, planning a fleet of 14 newbuildings by 2013.
Limassol-based Intership has kicked off by signing up for three 9,000-dwt vessels at Shandong Huanghai in China with options for three more.
Delivery of those six ships, which together will cost around $120m, is scheduled to begin at the end of 2008 and continue at four-month intervals.
Intership will take a controlling equity stake in the vessels but with further funding from a small group of investors from Cyprus.
Managing director Captain Eugen Adami confirms the deal at Huanghai and says commercial management of the pool will be handled by Philadelphia-based United Bulk Carriers, which also has extensive experience in the cement business.
Outside investorswill also be involved in future newbuildings, some of which may be ordered at another Chinese yard in Shandong province. Income from the pool will be spread between the vessels and shareholders paid dividends.
Longer term, the intention is to include other owners in the pool who are expected to order similar ships.
Adami says the plan is to build between now and 2013 some 14 vessels, using the same modular design, of 7,500 dwt, 9,000 dwt and 12,000 dwt. He describes them as "cement carriers of the future", minimising dust pollution during loading and discharge and with low energy consumption for cargo operations.
The pneumatic and mechanical self-unloading vessels will have extremely good manoueuvring capabilities with twin Daihatsu 6 DK-28 engines, each of 2,500 KW, coupled to two fixed propellers via a reversible and twin rudder. They will be equipped to operate in the most remote locations.
The Huanghai vessels are the first cement-carrier newbuildings for Intership, although in the late 1990s it handled technical management of a 30-strong cement fleet operated in Europe and the Caribbean.
During the past 15 years, Interships bulkers have also carried cement in loose configuration and Adami says the intention is to offer the state-of-the-art newbuildings to the same shippers.
The biggest operator of cement carriers today is Kristian Gerhard Jebsen Skipsrederi, which last year took over Belden Shipholding of Singapore. That created a fleet, including newbuildings, of more than 30 vessels.
Investors in the Intership cement-carrier newbuildings are the same as those that the owner has worked with on 24,000-dwt and 32,000-dwt-bulker projects but Adami declines to reveal their identities.
The Huanghai ships are not linked to any specific projects but Adami says Intership knows where they can be used. Europe and the Caribbean are again likely areas.
He says they should be in demand as most cement carriers are over 20 years old and new regulations, covering dust pollution and emissions, demand higher standards.
The cement plant for the ships is to be supplied by BMH Marine, a Swedish company recently acquired by MacGregor Group to form MacGregor Bulk. That equipment alone is thought to be costing around EUR 3m ($4m) per unit.
Huanghai already has orders from Germany's Hartmann Group, which owns Intership, for around 20 multipurpose (MPP) cargoships of mainly 7,600 dwt and 25,000 dwt.
By Geoff Garfield, London


published: 04 May 20