Bourbon keeps its options open

摘要

France's Bourbon group is not yet ready to draw the curtain on its bulk shipping business despite the recent $545M sale of its entire 16-vessel Supramax fleet to Genco Shipping and Trading.rnAsked by Fairplay about its long-term plans for the business, chairman Jacques de Chateauvi-eux indicated that the group was not unhappy serving its clientele with chartered tonnage...for the time being.rnHe recalled that the group's bulk shipping subsidiary Setaf Saget had functioned perfectly well in the past without having a fleet of owned vessels at its disposal. The current situation is comparable to that when Bourbon took control of Setaf in 1996, he said. Its only owned vessel then had been a cement carrier, which it operated under contract to the Lafarge cement group. The company's clientele has grown since, but it was still able to take ships on timecharter to meet their needs.