Hamburg: The owner-operator HBC Hamburg Bulk Carriers has expanded its operations by adding a further 11 bulk carriers originating from the German banking sector to its burgeoning third party management.
The HBC Group was founded in Hamburg in 1999 and specialises in shipowning, managing and operating on spot and time charter basis a fleet of bulk carriers.
This latest addition of the managed fleet consists of bulk carriers between 53,000 dwt and 82,000 dwt, supplementing the traditional HBC fleet within the handy bulk segment.
“For HBC this is a good and natural development. At the beginning of the financial crisis, we were not the first point of contact for banks who were searching for external shipmanagers,” said Felix Knick, managing director of the HBC Group in Singapore. “This is perhaps because we seem at a first glance like a traditional tramp shipping company,” he pointed out.
Talks on additional third party management vessels are currently taking place, the company’s co-founder Georg Greilinger revealed.
