Three years since its founding Peter Weernink-led SwissMarine is ready to make its first ship acquisitions.
With the likes of John Fredriksen, John Michael Radziwill and the Martinos and Veniamis families onboard as investors, SwissMarine today has around 170 dry bulk ships chartered in. Weernink founded the company in April 2019 as Singapore Marine before moving to acquire and merge his old company, SwissMarine, in September of the same year.
“We do anticipate starting to buy some tonnage later in 2022 through the exercising of purchase options under period charter,” Weernink said in an exclusive interview with Splash. Weernink said the company has moved into a new growth phase over the past year with results described as “more than satisfactory”.
Weernink is a dry bulk veteran, having worked for Cargill for 11 years prior to founding the first incarnation of SwissMarine in 2001. He told Splash that today’s markets are unique in his career, but ought to see solid returns in the coming years.
“More than at any other time I can recollect there is a huge amount of uncertainty today on market development and direction, so I prefer to abstain from any predictions,” Weernink said.
When pressed however, Weernink said that with the world in an inflationary period, orderbooks “quite full” combined with upcoming regulatory developments ought to deliver average rates that are higher over the next five years than the previous five.
