Singapore: Despite the ongoing recession hitting shipping, China Navigation, an affiliate of the Swire Group, is on course to report better results this year, thanks to cutting operating costs, improving utilisation factors on key trades, adopting fleet-wide eco-steaming initiatives in addition to gains on sales of vessels for green scrapping, according to its managing director, Tim Blackburn.
“In our operations we have focused on improving fuel efficiency and reducing the use of consumables,” Blackburn told SeaShip News in an exclusive interview.
The company’s current fleet size is 36 vessels of which 14 are owned. Its owned fleet is set to nearly double with eight 31,000 dwt multipurpose vessels and four 40,000 dwt handysize bulk carriers for delivery in 2013 and 2014.
Blackburn has been in charge of China Navigation from last year. He is also chairman of Mandarin Shipping. [30/11/12]
