Bulk Shipping Alliance Close To Start-Up
A Capesize bulk shipping alliance involving three of the sector's biggest fleets may be launched within a month, according to one key player, Greece's Angelicoussis Group. "The momentum right now is to get it finished as soon as possible," Angelicoussis CFO Dimitri Stylianou said. Stylianou said the two other key players would be Israel's Zodiac Maritime, which is part of Israel's Ofer Brothers Group, and Bocimar of the Belgian CMB Group. "It'll be a three-way pool, but there will be some smaller players involved too," he added. "It's not so much a reaction as we feel the trade and nature of the Capesize market needs something more organised." Brokers said an alliance between the three would tie up Bocimar's 40-50 Capesizes with Zodiac's 30 and the Angelicoussis Group's six.
Bulk Carrier Stops To Dump Cocaine
The Capesize bulk carrier Anangel Destiny called into Saldanha Bay, Cape Town on Thursday to hand police 155 kg of cocaine that crew had discovered during routine maintenance on a voyage from Brazil. "The vessel's crew were doing routine maintenance on July 23 -- they were changing the sea suction filters -- when they discovered the packages," the ship's chartering manager Colm Nolan, of London-based Agelef Shipping, said. He said that given the location of the packages, they had "undoubtedly been put in from under the hull", probably by scuba-divers. The ship had left Brazil with its 170,000 ton iron ore cargo on July 17. "The moment they discovered it, they reported it to the authorities," said Agelef Chief Financial Officer Dimitri Stylianou.
