Shipping in the Great Lakes area has undergone its own consolidation with a merger of two big names.
Rand Logistics has entered into a $260m stock purchase agreement to acquire American Steamship Company (ASC), the largest operator of US-flagged vessels on the Great Lakes. ASC has been owned by GATX Corporation since 1973.
Rand is an affiliate of American Industrial Partners and provides dry bulk shipping services throughout the Great Lakes region.
“The strategic combination of Rand and ASC will create the largest and most diverse fleet on the Great Lakes, serving different and highly complementary markets with multiple self-unloading vessel classes,” Rand stated in a release.
“We are excited about this transformative combination of two leading vessel operators on the Great Lakes. This strategic union will create significant additional shipping capacity through network efficiencies and repositioning of the respective fleets. All of which will allow the resulting company to further improve its customer service and offer additional flexibility and shipping capacity to its customer base,” said Peter Coxon, CEO of Rand.
