The shipping company Minship is swallowing up Auerbach Marine and will take over the technical management of all bulk and MPP ships under the name Minmarine alone in future.
A good two years ago, in August 2021, Minship and Auerbach merged the technical management of their fleets. Initially, a good two dozen bulk and MPP vessels were managed from two locations in Bavaria and Hamburg under the names Auerbach Marine and Minmarine. Now the operational activities in the MPP sector will be united under the new name Minmarine MPP. [ds_preview]
“The rebranding completes the successful integration of Auerbach Marine,” says Markus Hiltl, Managing Director of Minship. Apart from the technical management, the group will continue its two-brand strategy, it says. The two shipping companies have been indirectly linked for a long time. Matthias Ruttmann, CEO of the MST Group, is also a shareholder and member of the advisory board of Auerbach Schifffahrt.
Minmarine fleet shrinking, newbuildings on the way
However, the joint fleet has shrunk from 26 ships to 10 ships. These include seven bulkers and three multipurpose freighters. Both companies had taken advantage of the good markets and rising asset prices over the past two years to sell a number of units.
In return, however, newbuildings are also being added. Minship has ordered a total of four bulkers of 40,000 tdw each in Japan, with the first ship, the “Birgit”, having been delivered just recently. The other three will follow in April, August and September next year. “We are also on the lookout for good projects, including on the second-hand market,” says Rafal Mirski, Managing Director of Minmarine and Minmarine MPP.
And Auerbach, which currently only has two ships of the former 15 units, also has new builds in sight. Together with Krey Schiffahrt from Leer, four freighters with a deadweight tonnage of 12,500 tdw and a lifting capacity of 500 t have been ordered from Taizhou Sanfu in China for delivery from 2025. According to Lucius Bunk, the shipping company he founded intends to focus entirely on its role as a ship owner in future and organize its operational and technical business in cooperation with partners. (KF)
