Singapore: Navig8 Expands Supramax Bulker Pool

The Supra 8 pool was set up in June this year, marking Navig8’s entry to the dry market with an initial fleet of four ships.

These have been followed by another 11, including three vessels from Spar Shipping in Bergen, two from US-based Maritime Equity Partners and ships from STX Pan Ocean of South Korea, Trojan Maritime of Greece, Zhoushan Hefeng of China, Densan Deniz of Turkey and Yamamaru Kisen of Japan.

Spar has entered the 53,000-dwt Spar Draco (built 2006), Spar Lynx (built 2005) and 58,000-dwt Spar Capella (built 2011). All were on long-term charter to Grand China Logistics (GCL), which defaulted on charter payments earlier this year. Spar is pursuing a $12m compensation claim against GCL.

Spar managing director Jarle Ellefsen confirms the ships have been put in Supra 8.

“We believe in their concept,” he said. “At these low freight levels, the charterers tend to have the upper hand on time-charter deals and often ask for options. We felt it was better to be exposed to the spot market.”

Ellefsen adds that a contributing factor for the move was good relations with pool boss Mathew Neal when he was head of the dry desk at Trafigura.

Neal claims the pool is outperforming the benchmark of the supramax routes and that further additions to the fleet are expected in the coming months.

Navig8 also plans to move into other dry-cargo segments with more pools in the near future.

Navig8 director Ugo Romano says the number of ships operated by the company now exceeds 180 and that the V8 aframax-tanker pool has grown from 20 to 31 ships in the past six months. Its tanker fleet includes ships ranging from VLCCs to bunker vessels.