Swire Bulk to be separated from China Navigation Co

Photo: CNCo SINGAN_Aerial Photo (002).jpg
Swire is splitting its bulk shipping activities away from China Navigation Company (CNCo) into a new entity Swire Bulk.

The move sees Swire’s dry bulk shipping activities being split from its liner shipping and fleet management services under CNCo.

The standalone privately held company Swire Bulk will be headquartered in Singapore. Swire Bulk had been a division under CNCo and had grown rapidly since it was established in 2012. With the acquisition Hamburg Sud Tramp from Maersk in 2019 it had become the largest part of CNCo’s business.

With the growth in the bulk business the company sees it as the right time to carve it out as standalone business with John Swire & Sons as the parent company.

“While it has been a difficult dry bulk market over the last few years, Swire Bulk has built an excellent reputation in the dry bulk sector in a relatively short period of time.  Setting up Swire Bulk as a standalone business will give it the independence required for its continued development as a high-quality global dry bulk operator,” said Sam Swire, chairman of CNCo.

Swire Bulk operates a fleet of up to 150 vessels predominantly in the handysize, supramax and ultramax sectors and has eight 37,000 dwt handysizes on order from Oshima with delivery from Q4 this year.

“Swire Bulk has built an experienced and high-performing team with over 100 employees across nine offices around the world with a strong customer centric culture and an excellent reputation towards innovative freight solutions and its ability to build high-valued partnerships with tonnage providers, trading houses and our core industrial client base” commented Rob Aarvold, Swire Bulk general manager.

The separation of Swire Bulk from CNCo is targeted for 1 January 2021, and the announcement of a ceo for Swire Bulk is expected “in due course”.