December 28 - Thorco Shipping Holland has reached an agreement with Navigia and Feederlines to join forces in a new technical ship management venture, which will represent four brands: Thorco Projects, Navigia, Feederlines and Peak.
"This change will bring a lot of challenges for everyone involved, but we are confident that together we will be able to meet current demands we encounter in a far better way," said managing director of Thorco Shipping Holland, Otto Torenbosch.
"We believe that with this new joint venture we have created the right setup to attack the current and coming challenges in the market for the upcoming period."
Thorco Holland is currently managing a fleet of 21 vessels, and the new joint venture company will have a total of 65 vessels under ship management, said a statement.
Thorco Holland's 14 members of staff will join the 42 personnel from Feederlines/Navigia's facilities in Groningen.
Earlier this year Feederlines was separated from its former shareholder, Reederei Hartmann in Leer, and is now 100 percent owned by Jan van der Laan. Navigia is owned by Jan van Breden and Eric Bos. Both companies merged their management activities earlier this year.
At the beginning of December, the technical management for six Abis B-type 3,800 dwt open-top vessels was awarded to Navigia/Feederlines by the ships' new owners, Peak Norway, according to Thorco Shipping.
HLPFI reported on November 4 that ships within Abis Shipping's fleet were going under the hammer, after the bank pulled its financial support for the vessels.
Torenbosch, who joined Thorco Holland in 2014, previously served as managing director of Abis Shipping from 2007 to 2010.
According to Peak Norway's website, it operates a fleet of six ex-Abis ships, including Abis Bremen (pictured).
