The Largest Operator of Handysize Bulkers in the World

Pacific Basin Shipping Ltd of Hong Kong is an operator of a huge fleet of 222 Handysize and Handymax bulk carriers. Handysize bulkers are defined as less than 40,000 dwt whereas Handymax bulkers are in the range of 40,000 dwt to 50,000 dwt. This is all the more remarkable in that it has been achieved from a standing start in 1987 over the period of the last 27 years in Hong Kong. Diversification into ro-ro shipping and harbour and offshore towage has also been achieved, with a current fleet of 45 tugs and seven barges operating in Australian ports, the North Western Australia offshore oil and gas fields, and in Fujairah and Dubai. PB Sea- Tow with offices in Sydney and Auckland provide extensive project cargo and module transport between Australia, New Zealand, South East Asia and the South Pacific regions.

Pacific Basin Shipping and Trading Co. Ltd. was co-founded in 1987 by Paul Over and Christopher Buttery, with Mark Harris as Chief Financial Officer. The first six second-hand Handysize bulkers in the fleet were Handy Commander (ex Jupiter Lily), Handy Dancer (ex Ima), Handy Gaule (ex Seahawk), Handy Prince (ex Ariana), Handy Sailor (ex California Rainbow) and Handy Samurai (ex Elegant C). Lappland of 34,000 dwt was purchased in late 1991 from Brostroms and renamed Handy Explorer, and Handy Accord (ex Southern Accord) followed in early 1992. In late, 1993, a large order for three new Handysize bulkers of 26,500 dwt was placed with the Guangzhou Shipyard International for delivery in 1995 as Handy Althea, Handy Gunner and Handy Roseland for $40 million each. In September, 1994, Pacific Basin shares were listed on the New York Stock Exchanges, followed by the London and Oslo Stock Exchanges in 1995/96.

Ten more Handysize bulkers were purchased in 1995/96 and renamed as Handy Brave (ex Red Stag), Handy Dragon (ex Dragon Wealth), Handy Emerald (ex Pacific Emerald), Handy Esperance (ex Esperance), Handy Humanity (ex Sank Humanity), Handy Laker (ex Asian Erie), Handy Logger (ex Green Cedar), Handy Silver (ex Vigra), Handy Tiger (ex Brave Venture and the biggest so far at 38,650 dwt), and Handy Viking (ex Golden Viking). The most regular trades for the fleet at this time were the Transpacific logging trades from the Columbia River, and coal and iron ore imported and steel products exported from the New South Wales steel port of Newcastle. However, steelmaking at the giant Newcastle steel plant came to an end in December, 1999. The size of the world Handysize and Handymax bulker fleet had remained steady for the last ten years to 1997 at 100 Mdwt with very few bulkers laid up.

PACIFIC BASIN SHIPPING LTD
In 1996, the company was acquired by the Hong Kong based Anglo-Eastern Group, better known for its ship management activities. The ‘Handy’ fleet was sold off to MISC (Malaysia International Shipping Corporation) in early 1998, and Pacific Basin Shipping then returned later that year to its original owners and management, repurchased as the management agency Pacific Basin Shipping Ltd. By the end of 1999, the company was managing seven Handysize bulkers and had purchased two log carriers. In 2001, a Handysize pool management business was established named International Handybulk Carriers (IHC) with membership quickly growing to include BHP Billiton of Australia, Funada Kaiun of Japan, Intermare of Genoa, Sinotrans of China, Torm of Denmark and Wah Kwong of Hong Kong. This pool was later renamed Pacific Basin Dry Bulk, and one original member was the managed Pacific Basin Shipping Handysize bulker Captain Corelli, named after the wartime Italian Army officer in Greece with the mandolin.

The ship management business of Jardine, Matheson of Hong Kong was acquired in December, 2000 and was renamed as IndoChina Ship Management with Pacific Basin having a controlling 67% stake. London Shipping Consultants and Lothian Ship Management were acquired in 2001, followed by the well known Bibby- Harrison Ship Management in 2003. This large ship management business handled all types of vessels, with one of the latest vessels being the Auckland double hull bunkering tanker Awanuia of 3,900 dwt and delivered to Sea Fuels Ltd., a joint venture between the Port of Auckland and the company in August 2009. The vessel was built by Yardimci Tersanesi at Tuzla in Turkey and arrived after a voyage of 11,000 miles at Auckland, where she is on time charter to Shell New Zealand and loads her bunkering cargoes at the Marsden Point refinery to the north of Auckland. She is fitted with twin four stroke 6-cylinder Wartsila diesel engines of 2,936 bhp to give a service speed of 12 knots.

EXPANSION FROM 2004
A company office in Wan Chai on Hong Kong island facing Victoria Harbour raised some $146 million of investment on 14th July 2004 from an IPO (Initial Public Offering) together with a listing on the main Hong Kong Stock Exchange, and the company then began to purchase and charter many more Handysize vessels. Six Handysize bulkers were purchased from Wah Kwong of Hong Kong and Libera of Japan, in Ansac Harmony, Apollo Bay, Aqua Venture, Mount Fisher, Ocean Exporter and Sun Ruby. Further extensive private investment allowed Pacific Basin Shipping to grow its fleet through newbuildings and more purchased Handysize bulkers, and it established a corporate structure that is still employed today. A further $157 million of investment was raised by share placements in 2006, by which time the company had offices in Hong Kong, Melbourne, Manila, Singapore, Dalian, Tokyo, London and Liverpool. Offices were opened in Auckland and Santiago (Chile) in 2007 and another in Dubai for a joint venture called Fujairah Bulk Shipping, as well as one in Beijing for management of a 46% stake in Nanjing Port in China.

There were now two companies in Pacific Basin Shipping (Hong Kong) Ltd. and Pacific Basin Ship Management Ltd. A total fleet of 45 bulkers in September 2005 consisted of thirty owned, eleven chartered and four managed bulkers. The managed Handysizes were Abakan, Althea, Captain Corelli and Kiwi Breeze, and the owned Handysizes were Abbot Point, Albany Sound, Apollo Bay, Black Forest, Cape Flattery, Cape Jaffa, Cape Nelson, Cape Spencer, Cape York, Castle Island, Cook Strait, Flinders Island, Gold River, Hawke Bay, Kiwi Trader, Mount Fisher, Mount Travers, Oak Harbour, Ocean Exporter, Ocean Logger, Pacific Logger, Patagonia, Pitt Island, Port Pegasus, Port Pirie, Silver Bay, Stewart Island, Sun Ruby, Tasman Sea and Timaru Star.

Richard Hext joined Pacific Basin Shipping on 7th April 2005 as Deputy Chairman with responsibility for commercial and operating performance. He was formerly CEO of V Ships Marine Services Division, and previously was Managing Director of China Navigation Ltd. in Hong Kong and a director of John Swire & Sons (Hong Kong) Ltd. He was able to commend the swift actions of the crew of the Handysize bulker Cape Nelson, which rescued four fishermen from their sinking boat on 26th October 2005 some 625 miles north west of San Francisco. The rescue was coordinated by the U.S. Coastguard and the crew of Cape Nelson picked up the fishermen only four hours after their emergency signal was sent out at 0650 hours. Pacific Basin Shipping is a participant in the U.S. Coastguard AMVER rescue system, and the rescue was made in the best traditions of mariners at sea, who were landed at Honolulu. At the end of 2005, the Handysize Stewart Island of 28,730 dwt became the first ever foreign owned bulker in the world to be bareboat chartered to China, and under the terms of the deal the vessel had to change registration from Hong Kong to the Marshall Islands flag.

In 2006, Pacific Basin Shipping entered the Handymax segment of the bulk market for vessels between 40,000 dwt and 50,000 dwt. The needs of clients for iron ore, coke and cement cargoes would be more easily met e.g. loaded voyages with iron ore from Port Hedland to India and Chile as well as to China became a feature of Handymax cargoes. In September 2006, the size of the fleet reached sixty vessels (25 owned, 31 chartered and four managed) bulk carriers with the purchase of the Handymaxes Ocean Melody and Aries Forest for $55.4 million to service these heavier types of cargo, an increase of fifteen bulkers in one year. During 2006, the CEO of Pacific Basin, Mark Harris, and co-founder Paul Over both departed from the management team, and they followed the departure of the original venture capitalists, Dry Bulk Shipping and IDB Carriers, who cashed in their 42% stakes during 2005. The turnover for the year 2005 was $434 million with net profits of $147 million, an increase of over 40% from 2004, and this level of profits continued in 2006 and 2007. Four new Handysize bulkers joined the fleet in 2007, the owned Arctic Id ex Lake Joy and Baltic Id ex Castle Peak, and the managed Handysizes Chatham Island and Willow Point.

AUSTRALIAN TOWAGE FLEET
In December 2007, a 90% interest was purchased in Australian Maritime Services, a harbour towage company owning six tugs in Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane. A new towage company, PB Towage Pty Ltd., was set up with the Australian harbour tugs simply adding the prefix ‘PB’ to their names as PB Botany, PB Cook, PB Flinders, PB Gibson, PB Hunter and PB Yarra. New tugs were commissioned such as PB Snowy, PB Darling, PB Fitzroy, PB Diamantina and PB Murray. The anchor handling and fire fighting tugs PB Karepo and PB Konui, both of 962 gt, and PB Komata, PB Kaituna and PB Provider, all of 499 gt with 5,000 bhp engines, were later commissioned for use as oil rig supply vessels (ORSV) to the offshore oil and gas rigs of North West Australia, particularly to the Gorgon Project, a major offshore gas project in that area from 2009. Chevron is the operator of Gorgon with ExxonMobil and Shell as joint partners in this big gas field between 130 and 200 kilometres off the North West Australia coastline. PB Sea-Tow (Australia) Pty Ltd. and PB Sea-Tow (New Zealand) Ltd. use company tugs for project cargo and module transportation between Australia, New Zealand, South East Asia and the South Pacific, and other ‘PB’ tugs are stationed at Fujairah and Dubai.

PB Towage took on the stiff competition from Svitzer, formerly Adsteam, in many Australian ports and refused to be overawed by its much bigger international rival. In 2010, six new harbour tugs of 250 gt and 5,000 bhp were completed by the Damen yard in Gorinchem as PB Endeavour, PB Murrumbidgee, PB Daintree, PB Darling, PB Herbert and PB Leichhardt. PB Endeavour, PB Herbert and PB Leichhardt were named together in the Port of Townsville on 9th August 2010 by wives of executives of the port. The new class of tug has a length of 29 metres and a bollard pull of 58 tonnes, and PB Towage had gained an exclusive five year towage licence with the Port of Townsville, and replaced Svitzer in this Queensland port. The company had also won towage licences in Port Botany, Onslow, Gladstone and Fremantle. One fifth of Pacific Basin Shipping bulker cargoes are loaded or discharged in Australia, and the PB tugs are always used for their harbour berthing. PB Towage complements the core business with some customers also using tugs and barges to move cargoes in remote areas such as Papua New Guinea. A strategic business alliance was formed with Crowley Maritime Corporation based in Houston on 7th February 2012 to broaden their joint marine project cargo and logistics capabilities in South East Asia and the Pacific areas. PB Towage based in Fremantle already undertook project cargo transport, logistics, ocean towing, offshore support, salvage operations, and bulk cargo transportation solutions for their oil, gas, mining and engineering customers. Crowley Towage has its Ocean Class of powerful long distance tugs of 165 tonnes bollard pull, and the Invader, Sea Robin and Point Classes of between 75 and 23 tonnes bollard pull for harbour towage and tanker escort duties.

A further partnership alliance was signed with Boluda Towage and Salvage of Spain on 9th July, 2012 for towage contracts for new Australian LNG terminals. Joint bids will be submitted for future terminal contracts, with Boluda having a worldwide leadership position in serving 54 ports and terminals in Europe, Africa, Indian Ocean, the Caribbean and Latin America and North America and South America with more than two hundred tugs. Boluda has one hundred years experience in harbour towage as well as salvage, coastal and offshore towing, and sea rescues, and welcomed the opportunity to extend its range of towing activities into the Australian market. In July, 2013, four company tugs, PB Fitzroy, PB Murray, PB Darling and PB Diamantina, the latter tug after returning from Middle East employment, began working at the port of Newcastle (NSW) as competition to the nine Svitzer tugs already working at the port.

RO-RO FLEET
In February 2008, Pacific Basin Shipping announced its entry into the ro-ro market and shortly afterwards purchased two newbuildings from Grimaldi of Naples for $173.6 million and ordered four more vessels for the new car carrier markets. These orders were placed with the Lindo yard of Odense Steelskibsvaerft in Denmark for car carriers with dimensions of 193 metres length, beam of 26 metres and draft of seven metres. They have a lane length of 3,663 metres for new cars and trailers and are equipped with stern doors and ramps and have accommodation for a dozen lorry drivers. They were delivered from Odense as Humber Viking, Maas Viking, Bering Strait and Strait of Messina during 2011/12 as the last vessels built by the famous Lindo yard at Odense. Humber Viking was named on 21st August 2009 by Mrs. Lene Skou, and the four impressive ro-ros were built to a well proven ‘Flensburg’ design. Humber Viking and Maas Viking began a time charter to Norfolk Line in the North Sea on a regular trade route between Killingholme on the Humber and Vlaardingen in Holland. However, at the end of 2012, the company announced its exit from the ro-ro sector, with the fleet of six ships to be progressively sold to Grimaldi for $194 million through to 2015, with the buyer bareboat chartering the fleet for the three years of the interim period.

EXPANSION FROM 2008
A share placement in 2008 raised $275 million of investment capital, and many newbuilding Handysize and Handymax bulkers joined the fleet during the next two years. This increased the size of the owned, chartered and managed fleet to 180 vessels. New Handysize vessels included Cape Moreton, Darling River, Diamond Harbour, Esperance Bay, Hudson Bay, Koombana Bay, Maipo River, Mount Owen, Port Phillip, Santiago Basin, Silver Lake, Taihua Star and Tiwai Point. Silver Lake of 32,500 dwt was the first of a new series of four bulkers from the Jiangmeng Nanyang yard in China. All of the new bulkers are geared vessels with five holds and five hatches and were built by yards in China and Japan and are typically fitted with six cylinder MAN-B & W diesel engines of 8,800 bhp to give a service speed of 14 knots. The bulker Lodestar Forest of 31,925 dwt was purchased in December 2009 for $23.2 million from IMA Lines of Japan. A further $330 million of investment capital was raised from share placements and convertible bond issues during 2009/10 to place further orders for $284M of newbuildings to increase the fleet.

Two large Post Panamax coal carriers of 115,640 dwt and 95,200 dwt were ordered in 2009 from the Shanghai Jiangnan and Imabari yards by the company to expand the Pacific Basin presence in the Chinese coal transport market, and the company also later invested in coal blending facilities in China. The pair were delivered in 2011 as Eastern Glamour and Kind Salute respectively. The largest shareholder in Pacific Basin Shipping Ltd. was now Canfornav of Canada, and an office was opened in Stamford (Connecticut) in March 2012 to increase the supply of Handysize and Handymax cargoes in the Atlantic to the company. On 2nd April 2013, Japanese Export Credit Financing of $85.2 million was finalized for three Handysizes and one Handymax plus two more Handymaxes in August 2013 for delivery in Japan in mid 2014. Orders were placed in June 2013 for $115 million of new bulk Handysizes and Handymaxes, making it the largest operator of Handysize bulkers in the world, and the twelfth largest bulk carrier operator in the world in terms of tonnage carried, a tremendous achievement in only 27 years.

Capt. Zhu Qianchun, a Pacific Basin Shipping Master, was honoured by being named ‘Seafarer of the Year’ on 20th September 2011 by Lloyd’s List. He had shown exemplary seamanship and leadership when his ship Port Pegasus was berthed in the port of Onahama on the east coast of Japan when the earthquake and tsunami struck on 11th March 2011. Onahama was 112 miles from the epicenter of the 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami, and an eight metre swell submerged the dock and collapsed the terminal building with a shoreside unloader still deep in one of the bulker’s holds. Capt. Zhu and his crew had to work the vessel’s propulsion and steering for 18 hours without the support of tugs, pilots, port control or linesmen and with only two of twelve mooring lines still holding. Capt. Zhu had only been promoted to Master one month before the tsunami, but he focused on keeping his crew safe, calm, confident and organized. The physical effort in keeping the remaining lines secure and his good communication with his crew in the rapidly changing situation showed his tremendous maturity. The Chief Operating Officer of Pacific Basin Shipping, Jan Rindbo, said that the company was immensely proud of him and were thankful for his exemplary service under pressure in his career with the company of only ten years. Port Pegasus left Onahama undamaged and continued trading in the Pacific region, and completed a loaded voyage with alumina for discharge at Bluff at the tip of South Island, New Zealand on 20th September 2011. She was loading logs at Portland (Oregon) at the end of August 2013 after having ballasted across the Pacific.

CURRENT FLEET
Pacific Basin Shipping Ltd. has a fleet of 8 million dwt and its owned and chartered bulkers have an average age of six years and operate in both the ‘spot’ market and on multiple shipment contracts of affreightment. They carry a wide range of cargoes including log and forest products (17%), cement (15%), alumina, soda ash and gypsum (15%), grain (11%), coal and coke (9%), fertiliser (9%), concentrates (8%), salt (6%), steel and scrap (5%) and ores (5%). The Handysize bulker Kaiti Hill has during 2013 carried multiple cargoes of steel coils for Australian client Bluescope from Gladstone, and has been commended by the customer and the Gladstone Port Authority for its excellent efficiency. She is named after a hill at Gisborne on the east coast of North Island, New Zealand on Poverty Bay where Capt. James Cook landed in 1769, and is the discharge point with coal for many of the company bulkers. As with all of the company bulkers, Kaiti Hill is registered in Hong Kong and has also carried bulk cargoes worldwide during her nine year career, from logs in British Columbia, concentrates in Porsgrunn in Norway, and ores in the Black Sea. The latest bulkers in the fleet are of a fuel efficient design and are equipped with the latest technical innovations to reduce atmospheric emissions and marine discharges.

The current owned Handysize fleet of bulkers is 75 owned vessels in Albany Sound, Baltic Sea, Bass Strait, Bell Bay, Black Forest, Cape Flattery, Cape Moreton, Cape Nelson, Cape Spencer, Cape York, Castle Island, Champion Bay, Cherry Point, Cook Strait, Corio Bay, Darling River, Diamond Harbour, Eastern Cape, English Bay, Esperance Bay, Gold River, Hawke Bay, Imabari Logger, Jamaica Bay, James Bay, Jiangmen Trader, Jervis Bay, Jericho Beach, Jules Point, Kaiti Hill, Kanda Logger, Koombana Bay, Kiwi Trader, Kultus Cove, Luzon Strait, Maipo River, Matakana Island, Mount Adams, Mount Baker, Mount Hikurangi, Mount Owen, Mount Rainier, Mount Travers, Oak Harbour, Ocean Exporter, Pacific Logger, Port Alfred, Port Alberni, Port Alice, Port Angeles, Port Botany, Port Kenny, Port Pegasus, Port Phillip, Portland Bay, Puget Sound, Santiago Basin, Silver Lake, Sun Ruby, Taihua Star, Tampa Bay, Tasman Sea, Timaru Star, and Tiwai Point.

Tiwai Point is named after the location of the only aluminium smelter in New Zealand at Bluff, and the discharge point with alumina for many company bulkers. Alumina is also transported to the aluminium smelter at Bell Bay on the north coast of Tasmania. Several other bulkers have New Zealand names e.g. Hawke Bay, Matakana Island, Mount Hikurangi, Jules Point at Nelson, and Diamond Harbour on the Banks peninsula near Christchurch, while others are named after places in Australia e.g. Koombana Bay at Bunbury in Western Australia exporting alumina, Esperance Bay on the Great Australian Bight in Western Australia exporting nickel concentrates, and Champion Bay at Geraldton, Western Australia between Point Moore and Bluff Point exporting iron ore, minerals and zircon sands. Cherry Point is near Blaine on the Canadian and American border to the south of Vancouver in northern Washington State, English Bay is in Vancouver near Stanley Park as is Jericho Beach, and Kultus Cove and Gold River are also in British Columbia. Port Alfred and Port Kenny are in South Australia, Port Alberni and Port Alice are in British Columbia, Port Angeles is in Washington State, Port Botany is in New South Wales, Port Pegasus is on Stewart Island (New Zealand), and Port Phillip and Corio Bay are at Geelong and Melbourne. These Pacific Basin bulkers regularly voyage past Cape Flattery on the westward end of the Juan de Fuca Strait between Vancouver Island and Washington State, Cape Nelson in Victoria (Australia) near Port Fairy, Cape York on the Torres Strait, Cape Moreton near Brisbane, and Cape Spencer on the Yorke Peninsula in South Australia.

The owned Handymaxes of between 50,000 dwt and 58,000 dwt are Astoria Bay, Barrow Island, Bonny Island, Chiloe Island, Elizabeth River, Liberty Island, Oak Bay, Olive Bay, Pacific Sea, Swan River, West Bay, White Bay and Zhoushan Island. They are named after locations all around the Pacific Rim, with Astoria Bay at the seaward end of the mighty Columbia river where many company bulkers load logs, Chiloe Island is part of the Chiloe archipelago off Chile, and Oak Bay is on the southern tip of Vancouver Island near Victoria. Barrow Island in Western Australia is 31 miles north west of the Pibara coastline with oil discovered on the island in 1964, White Bay is on Sydney Harbour, and the Swan river flows through Perth to Fremantle and the sea. Zhoushan Island is part of the archipelago of the same name off eastern China, which is a big and growing market for coal and iron ore carried by company bulkers. In addition, a large fleet of 86 Handysize and Handymax bulkers are chartered from worldwide shipowners.

The company has expanded very much faster than the other Hong Kong bulk carrier operators such as the Valles Steamship Co. Ltd., Wah Kwong, Wallem and Cido Shipping Co. Ltd., mainly because it has remained in the same ‘Handysize’ market for all of its existence. Valles Steamship Co. Ltd. was set up in 1951 by Kou-Ming Koo and had a large fleet of Handysize and Handymax bulkers with ‘Silver’ prefixes to their names e.g. Silver Constellation, Silver Pagoda, Silver Shelton, Silver Clipper and Silver Longevity with Federal Bulker on charter to FedNav of Canada and Hercules Bulker on charter to Cargill, and currently has a fleet of fifteen ships. Wah Kwong was set up in 1958 by T.Y. Chao and is also known as Venture Shipping Ltd. with ‘Handysize’ bulkers such as Asian Venture, Aqua Venture, Brave Venture, Hallam Venture, Sabodine Venture and Yasuko Venture built in the mid 1980s, and currently has a bulk carrier fleet of a dozen ships, the largest being the Capesizes Aqua Venture, Cape Shanghai and Cape Victory.

The other Hong Kong competitors such as Wallem Ship Management date back over a century to 1903 when Haakon Wallem set up in business in Shanghai. The Wallem fleet had grown to eight vessels by 1932 and then increased sharply to 22 vessels by 1939, with fourteen managed from Bergen and eight managed from Hong Kong. After war losses, the fleet had been built back up to six ships by 1960 and increased further with the delivery of the new Aframax tanker Erviken of 81,500 dwt in 1967. A dozen tankers were managed by Wallem Ship Management of Hong Kong in 1995, some on charter to Total of France, and the largest bulkers in their current fleet are the Panamax vessels Great Harvest and Maple Ruby. Cido Shipping Co. Ltd. was founded in Seoul in 1993 and transferred its headquarters to the Cosco Tower building in Queens Road Central in Hong Kong on 23rd August 2004, and has a substantial fleet of Capesize and Panamax bulk carriers as well as a fleet of car carriers. Hyuk Kwon set up Cido Shipping and is now its President, with the largest ships of the fleet being the Capesizes Great Challenger, Great Navigator and Five Stars Beijing.

POSTSCRIPT
There were enormous changes in Hong Kong after the handover on 1st July 1997 in the political framework when it became part of China after the one hundred year lease to Britain had ended. China had conceded Hong Kong to Britain in 1841 after their defeat in the First Opium War and a lease was later negotiated. Today, China treats Hong Kong (and Macao) with special rights, the two territories being called Special Administrative Regions (SAR). Before handover, Britain negotiated with China the Basic Law, the premise of which was to assure the ‘Hong Kong Capitalist Way of Life’ for fifty years with a number of laws and measures. The cultural change was perhaps the greatest when Mainland Chinese rulers took over. Hong Kong Chinese people are quite different to Mainland Chinese people in their background and nature, and the latter surprisingly still needed a visa to pass into Hong Kong from China as Hong Kong still has its own entry regulations. Many British, American and European businessmen and entrepreneurs stayed on in Hong Kong after the change at the end of British rule, but there was naturally a big influx of Mainland Chinese people into Hong Kong.

Pacific Basin Shipping was named as ‘Dry Bulk Operator/Owner of the Year 2010’ by the Lloyd’s List Asia Awards, and has recently in 2013 received other local Hong Kong maritime awards. The Pacific Basin Shipping Ltd. headquarters is in Hutchison House in Central Hong Kong, with David M. Turnbull as Chairman and Mats Berglund as CEO. On 1st August 2013 the company reported a profit before tax of $13.6 million for the six months to 30th June 2013, with a net profit of $300,000 after tax. While this profit is slim and the Handysize and Handymax sectors are not expected to enjoy a sustained recovery very soon, Pacific Basin Shipping will nevertheless double the size of its owned, chartered and managed fleet during 2014. The company employs 2,500 seafarers and 350 shore based staff in sixteen worldwide offices. There are 33 owned and chartered newbuilding Handysizes and Handymaxes on order in February 2014. This ensures that the yellow funnel colours with a central blue conjoined ‘PB’ logo will be seen for many years to come across the Pacific Rim and Pacific Ocean and other parts of the world.