LOGISTICS operators becoming containership charters has become something of a trend with the arrival of the 2,756-TEU Cape Hellas at Tilbury after Ellerman City Liners second voyage from China, reports London's Loadstar.
Ellerman, a long-standing shipping name was revived last year under the UK ownership of UniOcean Lines, and has performed around 30 ad hoc charters over the past couple of years to serve its freight forwarding parent, Uniserve with much-needed vessel capacity on its key China-UK trade.
'The problem for forwarders doing ad hoc charters is that that you don't have a schedule, and that makes it very hard to get any sort of commitment from ports to service the calls,' said one senior trade source.
'And from an equipment port of view, operating the vessels on a schedule means you have control over the containers and are able to repatriate the boxes back to China.'
Ellerman Lines was founded as a cargo and passenger shipping company by Sir John Ellerman in 1892 but like many traditional shipping names, its fortunes declined with the advent of containerisation.
Last year, the brand was revived by Uniserve chairman Iain Liddell. The line launched operations with the 2,464-TEU Buxhansa departing Ningbo December 7, collecting cargo in Shenzhen's Dachan Bay before arriving in Tilbury on January 12.
Ellerman chartered the newbuild 2,756-TEU Cape Hellas for 30 months at a reported daily rate of US$54,000. Late last year, it also chartered the 5,060-TEU SC Mara and 3,500-TEU Mona Lisa, both for two-year periods, bringing its fleet to four vessels.
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Ellerman, a long-standing shipping name was revived last year under the UK ownership of UniOcean Lines, and has performed around 30 ad hoc charters over the past couple of years to serve its freight forwarding parent, Uniserve with much-needed vessel capacity on its key China-UK trade.
'The problem for forwarders doing ad hoc charters is that that you don't have a schedule, and that makes it very hard to get any sort of commitment from ports to service the calls,' said one senior trade source.
'And from an equipment port of view, operating the vessels on a schedule means you have control over the containers and are able to repatriate the boxes back to China.'
Ellerman Lines was founded as a cargo and passenger shipping company by Sir John Ellerman in 1892 but like many traditional shipping names, its fortunes declined with the advent of containerisation.
Last year, the brand was revived by Uniserve chairman Iain Liddell. The line launched operations with the 2,464-TEU Buxhansa departing Ningbo December 7, collecting cargo in Shenzhen's Dachan Bay before arriving in Tilbury on January 12.
Ellerman chartered the newbuild 2,756-TEU Cape Hellas for 30 months at a reported daily rate of US$54,000. Late last year, it also chartered the 5,060-TEU SC Mara and 3,500-TEU Mona Lisa, both for two-year periods, bringing its fleet to four vessels.
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