Companies offer solution to Chinese shipyards with problem deliveries

Two international shipping companies have teamed up to offer help to Chinese shipyards with undelivered vessels.
The UK-based Graig Group and Global Maritime Investments have already been jointly helping banks which have become owners by default – now they are hoping to provide a solution for the yards.
Chris Williams, Commercial Director, Graig Group explained: “There are increasingly owners walking away from transactions at shipyards in China and elsewhere when the market falls so much. The difference this time round has been that the orders were placed by predominantly Chinese.”
“We have a very big presence in China working with 30 or 40 shipyards, so there is a good network there. They are saying ‘We are going to end up being owner here, so we’ll take the ownership but we don’t know how to technically manage it’ so they find themself, by default, going into ownership which they don’t particularly like.”
Working together, Graig Group and GMI will provide yards with employment and management for vessels which have been built but cannot be delivered to the owner.
Graig Group Chief Executive Officer Hugh Williams said: “GMI has access to investors and employment opportunities and Graig knows the yards and ships and has the technical and crewing management to get the ships into operation economically.”
Steve Rodley, Managing Partner of GMI, added: “Ships which have been built but which would otherwise end up as fire resales or stuck in the yard can be put into service by us and later sold on when the market improves.”
How many vessels can the Graig/GMI co-operation foresee taking on? “Who knows how long a piece of string is?” said Chris Williams. “ We have just bid on a fleet of nine ships for an institution out in China which is quite a reasonable size bid but there are regular contacts going on with the shipyards – it could be as many as, say, 50 ships.”
“We have already been working with GMI with banks where they have also been becoming owners by default. We have a big business with yards and we’ve not really experienced a downturn like this with the yards but they are an obvious choice because we’ve worked with them extensively.”
Source: Graig Group