As one heavylift marriage comes to an end, the nuptials of another have just been consummated.
Two family-owned project shipping companies – BBC Chartering and Jumbo Shipping – have formed an alliance days after Spliethoff’s BigLift and Rolldock Shipping announced an end to their four and a half year old joint venture.
“Jumbo and BBC Chartering make a great match, which one can truly call the biggest and the best,” said Svend Andersen, CEO of BBC Chartering. He continued: “We realise that the world of project shipping is changing rapidly, and that our organisations need to focus on building strategic assets that will enable them to create value in the future.”
Few sectors of shipping – bar the container sector – have seen greater consolidation than the project segment, largely thanks to huge infusions of cash from private equity. This in turn has forced established private entities to seek partnerships to compete in terms of scale and global reach.
“Both of our companies are family owned, financially strong, and follow a long term strategy in the project shipping sector. As alliance partners we seek to fully utilize our potential arising from BBC Chartering’s market position as leader in the volume market for projects and from Jumbo’s market position as leader in super heavy lift projects” said Twan Voogt, CCO of Jumbo.
The partners will focus on offering their combined solutions by jointly bidding on specific projects providing customers the fleet and services on a best for project basis. Whilst both partners have agreed to an exclusive cooperation they will continue to operate as separate entities.
