The 93,000 dwt vessel Ocean Topaz, from Cosco Dalian, was completed last week and will be delivered when weather conditions in northern China improve, Noble's head of chartering R. Raghunath tells Seatrade Global. This will bring the group-owned fleet to 11 vessels, mostly capes and post-panamaxes.
For a company that has "around 230 to 300 ships under our control at any time", trading around 224m tonnes of bulk commodities a year, this represents an "asset-light strategy," comments Raghunath.
Current low vessel prices mean it would be tempting to place more orders, he continues, and indeed Noble has been making discreet yard enquiries. With tough trading conditions expected to last for at least the next couple of years, exacerbated by the continuing stream of large bulker newbuilding orders placed this year, it also anticipates "a lot of distressed assets coming onto the market."
However, the group is likely to buy "only maybe another 5-10 ships, no more" over coming years, according to Raghunath. By way of explanation he points to the recent historical of 2007-08 when Noble found itself "long (on charters) and capitalising on a rising market," only to quickly reverse that position after the Lehman Brothers crash but before the market was affected.
"You lose that nimbleness if you buy 50 ships," he says. "You can't sell them overnight."
Risk management has been the secret of Noble's commercial success as a commodity trader, while some of its rivals have faltered, he continues. In this way the company has been able to build to its current size of 17,000 employees at 139 offices around the world - complete with "a war chest and no capital expenditure". Net profit for 2012 rose 9% to $471m, the group reported last week.
Copyright © 2024. All rights reserved. Seatrade, a trading name of Informa Markets (UK) Limited. Add Seatrade Maritime News to your Google News feed.
