Page 4 - Thome Group News Issue 45

THOME WORLDContainer vessel joining the Thome fleet:MV Munk Strait of Cleaves SecuritiesBy Sverre Ditlev-Simonsen, Director, Business DevelopmentThe Norwegian owned container vessel MV Munk Strait was taken over on 23rd September 2016, when alongside the container terminal at Pasir Gudang, Malaysia. She is a 2,702 Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit (TEU) gearless cellular container vessel which can accommodate 442 reefer containers, built at the German yard Nordsee Werke GmbH and delivered in December 2004. The vessel was re-classed from its original class GL to ABS in December 2008.The MV Munk Strait is on charter to Wan Hai Lines Ltd., a well-established Taiwanese container vessel owner/ operator, and is currently trading in Japan, HK, Taiwan, Malaysia, and Singapore. She typically calls on 12 ports during a 28 day voyage. Careful planning is therefore required to ensurethat the crew gets sufficient leisure time to comply with regulations. The MV Munk Strait has a crew of 19 Chinese, supplied by Thome’s crewing partner in China, Sinocrew.The Munk Strait is the second feeder container vesselunder Thome Ship Management, and joined our fleet about 11 months after the geared Sinoceanic-owned MV Sealand Philadelphia, which has a 2,550 TEU capacity.To be awarded the Technical Management of thesetwo ships is the first, but very important, step in Thome’s longer term plan to build up a larger fleet of managed container vessels. Several Thome Ship Management staff have extensive experience of the management of such ships, enabling Thome to target and expand into this important shipping segment.As several container market segments are currently in distress, with freight rates just barely covering the vessels’ OPEX, many shipowners and involved financial institutions are looking for ways to reduce costs, and may see third party ship management as a solution.4 | ISSUE 47 | DECEMBER 2016