Lawrence Rutkowski News

The Vitol Group and Sargeant Marine, an asphalt trading, storage and transportation business, announced that Vitol will acquire a 50 percent interest in Sargeant Marine for an undisclosed sum. Sargeant Marine comprises a global trading operation, which distributes asphalt to customers worldwide, and two terminals in Rotterdam, Netherlands and Constantza, Romania. On completion, it is anticipated that the new, combined business will trade circa 1.3 million metric tons of asphalt per annum, with hubs in Florida, London and Singapore, and operate a fleet of 13 specialist vessels. It will also benefit from access to Vitol’s asphalt production around the world. The transaction is expected to complete in the first quarter of 2016. Until completion, day to day operations will remain unchanged.

Examining areas of change and growth in shipping is the focus of the 20th annual Hellenic-American and Norwegian-American Chambers of Commerce conference, often called the New York Shipping Conference. Entitled “Today’s Vision- Tomorrow’s Reality”, the conference will present a Macro Shipping and Economic Overview, a look at Shipping 2020, the challenges of balancing safety, regulatory compliance and costs, the current outlook and sources of dry bulk demand and supply, sourcing ship finance, and the commercial impacts of decisions regarding trade routes, chartering and futures.

'Financing Charters' may now be treated as 'Preferred Mortgages' — The Republic of the Marshall Islands passes Maritime Amendment Act (No. 1), 2013. The Republic of the Marshall Islands’ Nitijela has passed the Maritime Amendment Act (No. 1), 2013 – a legislative initiative of key significance to the international marine finance community. The first-of-its-kind legislation permits a “financing charter” to be treated as a preferred mortgage in favor of the registered owner of a Marshall Islands vessel, which allows a charter party to make precautionary security filings to protect and perfect its interest in a chartered vessel. This solves…

New York Maritime Inc. (NYMAR) has elected new officers and three new directors. William J. Honan III, a partner in the New York office of law firm Holland & Knight, has been elected chairman, succeeding founding chairman Robert J. Gruendel. "This is an exciting time to be at the helm of NYMAR as we grow and promote the exceptional opportunities for the shipping industry in New York," Honan said. "The city’s creativity, energy and perseverance are unmatched anywhere else. Other officers elected at a board meeting on January 12 were Keith W. Heard, a partner in the law firm of Burke & Parsons, as vice-chairman; Lawrence Rutkowski, partner and head of the Transportation Finance group in the law firm of Seward & Kissel…