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INTERVIEW - MPV PERFORMANCE, OUTLOOK AND MORE ...
Interview with Greg Ulicki, Safmarine's Director of Multipurpose Services (MPV):
How did the breakbulk shipping markets in which you are active perform, generally speaking, in 2009? Were there any particular sectors of this market that performed better than others?
Safmarine closely aligns its MPV services to the needs of its customers - and we saw those needs change in the challenging economic climate of 2009.
Problems with financing also affected the implementation of projects; this was evident in the postponement and delay of projects.
While a number of projects came on stream, some were postponed or cancelled and business conditions were, on the whole, volatile.
The situation changed daily and there was no fixed pattern or trend in terms of growth or contraction of demand.
There were no particular sectors (of the market we were in) that performed better than others.
2. How do you see prospects in 2010? What do you think will be the main influences on the breakbulk shipping business in the year ahead? How are you responding to the changed market circumstances ?
Although the prospects for 2010 are difficult to predict, we do not expect business conditions to significantly worsen in 2010. We also expect demand for breakbulk services to fluctuate, as they did in 2009.
Breakbulk services also continue to be influenced by container freight rates. When freight rates for container services are low, there is often a tendency for certain shippers to temporarily shift their business away from MPV to container services. However, in most incidents, these shippers return to MPV because of the distinct advantages of the MPV-type services. Shippers are increasingly realizing the value of not only basing decisions on freight rates - other factors, particularly service flexibility, are very important in the project cargo business. Another advantage is being able to ship both containerized and non-containerised cargo on one vessel, at the same time and with one transportation document. Safmarine's MPV service is also a global service which allows customers to ship all the cargo needed for a single project from diverse locations around the world, using a single shipping line (ie Safmarine).
Safmarine is responding to the changing market by listening to our customers, and adapting to their needs, as much as we can. In many ways our customers are dictating the direction, with us in 'listening mode'.
3. Have you introduced any new, or improved services for breakbulk shipments recently, or have any plans to do so? If so, could you give some details of the changes made?
Our aim to constantly improve our services and we did this in 2009 by rejuvenating our fleet of MPVs. We took delivery of new vessels on long term charter which resulted in service improvements (injection of new tonnage tends to result in improved schedule reliability, although the latter is subject to conditions in West Africa). Since we already offer a fairly global service, we currently don't have any fixed plans to increase our geographical coverage.
4. Are you making any notable investments in vessels with a breakbulk capability, either new or second hand? How will the introduction of these vessels boost your capabilities on the breakbulk sector?
Safmarine will be taking delivery of four new multi-purpose vessels (18 000dwt) in 2010/2011. These four new MPV vessels will be the first new MPV vessels to be wholly-owned and managed by Safmarine in more than a decade. Our investment in new, owned tonnage is not only proof of our commitment to the trade, but modern vessels also have a lower environmental impact. And, as mentioned above, deployment of new tonnage will enhance our service via improved schedule reliability.
(Safmarine currently operates a fleet of 15 MPV vessels, all chartered. Safmarine currently provides a total of six MPV services from four continents to West Africa and together our container and MPV services offer unmatched overage of West Africa's breakbulk and container ports - more than 60 ports in total. Flexibility is a key advantage of Safmarine's MPV shipping services ie port calls, routings and vessel size can be adapted to suit customer needs).
ends
This information was taken from Greg Ulicki's interview with journalist Clive Woodbridge (for Baltic magazine - March 2010)
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