News

Asian player on new course

A Bangkok outfit has consolidated its shipping activities in Singapore with a new team and business aims.

Thoresen Shipping, the new Singapore-based arm of Bangkok-headquartered Thoresen Thai Agencies (TTA) has officially opened offices in the Lion City. The event marks the beginning of a totally transformed Thoresen, complete with new managers, ships and operating philosophy.

At the helm is ma naging dire ctor Ian Cla xton, who joined the compa ny in July last year, assisted by commer cial director tvlike Anderson, who came on board last December.

1 Feb 2012

Tradewinds

Jonathan Boonzaier

Thoresen sees S&P window

THORESEN Shipping Singapore’s managing director Ian Claxton has told Fairplay he hopes to exploit the BDI’s fall to a three-year low by acquiring modern bulkers.

Claxton was speaking at the opening of the Thoresen Thai Agencies subsidiary’s office in Singapore yesterday.

In August TTA announced that Thoresen Shipping would oversee the commercial management of the TTA fleet, made up of Handysizes, Handymaxes and Supramaxes.

As at end-2011, Thoresen Shipping still owned 15 vessels, excluding chartered-in ships. TTA is now second to Precious Shipping among Thailand’s bulker operators, after selling 15 older ships and acquiring three newer ships last year.

Claxton told Fairplay: “Our growth strategy is to acquire modern secondhand vessels. The average age of our vessels is 10.8 years. We plan to buy three ships this year and another three ships next year.”

The Baltic Dry Index, which has already sunk below the psychologically significant mark of 1,000 points on vessel oversupply and waning cargo demand, fell to 753 points yesterday.

“Vessel prices are lower compared with historic prices, so we need to take advantage of the lower prices,” Claxton explained.

A dozen Thoresen Shipping’s owned fleet have been reflagged from Thailand to Singapore, to ride on tax breaks offered to Singapore-flagged tonnage.

Thoresen Shipping’s commercial director Mike Anderson said that by the end of 3Q2012, all the ships would be flagged in Singapore.

27 Jan 2012

Fairplay

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泰国海运公司本地办公室开幕 泰多利顺船务看好船运业

This article is positive in general.

The article discusses about the impact of the slowing global demand and international freight rates have fell, indicative by the Baltic Dry Index (BDI). It highlights that Thoresen Shipping Singapore, a subsidiary of TTA, had the opening ceremony yesterday and will be overseen by the newly appointed Commercial Director, Mike Anderson.

It quoted Ian Claxton by saying that although Europe and U.S shows uncertainty, TSS see growth potential and China and India will lead the rising demand. Ian also spoke about Singapore having more than 5,000 or more shipping-related companies and the shipping industry contributes up to 7% to gross domestic product (GDP), thus making Singapore a suitable location for their business here. TSS’s current fleet has 15 vessels and will aim to buy 2 this year and 6 more in the next two years to expand the current fleet. The article also mentioned that Thoresen’s reason of transferring the dry bulk business is to build customer relations and that Singapore’s infrastructure and shipping industry are highly attractive.

On dual listing for Thai-listed company, TTA, it quoted Ian by saying, “Currently, there is no intention of dual-listing, but this does not rule out the possibility in the future.”

27 Jan 2012

Lianhe Zaobao

Hua Jing Jing

Freight rates tumble to lowest level in 3 years

The article is positive in general and drives the key message that the industry will be picking up this year. It discusses about the fall in shipping freight rates to its lowest level in three years since the global financial crisis. However, despite the industry not looking too rosy, BDI is expected to pick up slowly by the end of 2012. It mentions that Ian Claxton predicts that BDI will slowly rebound as older ships are scrapped and demand from China for iron ore will pick up. It mentions the official opening of Thoresen Shipping Singapore‘s new office and quoted Ian saying that post Chinese New Year, there will be a seasonal pick-up, coinciding with hopefully some resolution to the euro zone debt crisis.

27 Jan 2012

The Straits Times

Robin Chan and Lennard Ong

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For more Information

Thoresen Co (Bangkok) Ltd
10th floor Orakarn Building
26/26-27 Soi Chidlom
Ploenchit Road, Pathumwan, Bangkok 10330 Thailand
General Line: +66 2250 0569