April 2 - Heavy lift and multipurpose project shipping lines, Hanssy Shipping and OXL have entered into a joint venture cooperation.
According to an official statement, both companies will market their ocean services jointly to customers, in order to optimise vessel loads and to provide a larger amount of tonnage and frequencies.
The alliance of the two shipping lines will create a combined fleet of approximately 25 heavy lift/multipurpose vessels and several general cargo ships. The heavy lift fleet ranges from 5,000 to 20,000 dwt, with cranes up to 800 tonnes overall lift capacity.
The first joint sailing will be performed by vessel Han Hui from Hamburg, Germany to the Far East.
It remains to be seen what the joint venture cooperation will consist of - a combination of operations, fleets, back-office administration and marketing activities of the two shipping companies, or a simple pooling arrangement where each company continues to market under its own brand.
This is the latest in a number of lines coming together including the merger last year between Intermarine and Scan-Trans; , the establishment of a vessel pool of three Coscol semi-submersible ships, and one each belonging to Tianjin Cosco Shipping, Guangzhou Salvage and Zhejiang Share-ever Business; plus the creation of a multi-purpose vessel by Enzian Ship Management of Zurich, Switzerland; Freese Shipping of Stade, Germany; and Clipper Projects of Copenhagen, Denmark.
