The German shipping companies Minship, based in Schnaittenbach, and Oskar Wehr, based in Hamburg, are pooling their technical ship management expertise through a new joint venture called Bellrock Maritime.
Bellrock Maritime has commenced operations today, as confirmed by the two German shipping companies. The joint venture combines their activities in the areas of technical ship management, crew management and QHS.
According to information from HANSA, both partners hold a 50 per cent stake in the joint venture and each appoint a managing director: Matthias Epp and Thomas Klehr. Initially, Bellrock will manage a total of 12 vessels, five from Minship and seven from Oskar Wehr. The company operates from Hamburg and Schnaittenbach and has an experienced ship management team of just under 20 staff. Lasse Grundmann from Oskar Wehr will serve as Fleet Director going forward.
Minship and Oskar Wehr remain independent
Bellrock is set to capitalise on synergies in ship management and also serve as a platform for further growth: in addition to its ‘own fleets’, the partners state that they intend to offer their services to external shipping companies and shipowners as well. Irrespective of technical ship management and crew management, BellRock’s shareholders will continue to operate independently in their other business areas.
For the southern German shipping company Minship, this is not the first collaboration with a partner from Hamburg. A few years ago, it entered into a partnership with Auerbach. This gave rise to the ship management firm Minmarine, which is now being merged into Bellrock Maritime. At the same time, the company has signalled its continued openness to further projects of this kind: in the HANSA podcast, managing directors Matthias Hiltl and Arne Seesemann exclusively confirmed that they were seeking further strategic partners and explained the reasoning behind their considerations. The deal has now been finalised.
