Leghorn: Following the abandonment of the dry bulk market with the sale of some assets recently, Dalmare’s future strategy is to focus on the liquid bulk business mainly in the Mediterranen. Gaetano D’Alesio, managing director of the company, together with his cousins Mauro, Francesco and Antonio, explains that the recent sales of two ships is part of Dalmare’s restructuring plan which also encompassed the sale of bulk carriers Giannutri and Montecristo as part of moves to quit the deepsea trades to intensively focus on port bunkering services in Leghorn-based tank farms and on cabotage services in Italy and the Mediterranean.
The short sea shipping business is operated on behalf of Eni through tankers Divina and Ardenza, engaged on seven-year time charters covering the route linking Sicily and Ortona port, and on behalf of Q8, whom they recently sealed a two-year contract for a ship called Melaria. The entire fleet is made up of seven tankers and four bunker vessels.
The D’Alesio Group was founded more than seventy years ago by Gaetano D’Alesio, his sons Antonio and Nello continue to run the firm with the collaboration of the third generation represented by Gaetano, Antonio, Mauro, Francesco and Elisa. As well as shipping the group is involved in oil storage and bunkering.
“Since Dalmare is a family owned company and cannot compete with the new shipping giants backed by private equity investors, we decided to follow a new business strategy oriented to the niche market rather than operating on the main international deepsea routes,” says Gaetano D’Alesio, pointing out that the two 40,000 dwt MR tankers, Aquaviva and Caletta, are still operating on the spot market. “We are interested at exploring new business opportunities in the Mediterranean as we did in Algeria where we have chartered out one of our bunker vessels for a long time contract with the national oil company,” says D’Alesio.
For more than 50 years D’Alesio Group has been the largest supplier of bunker products in the port of Leghorn as well as in the other ports of the Tyrrenian coast from La Spezia to Piombino.
