Instead of the current 7.600 dollars a day until recently, the ship "21. maj" of the state company Crnogorska plovidba (CG) now earns 16.500 dollars a day, and from October 5 the daily rent of that ship will be paid 18.000 dollars, it was confirmed unofficially to "Vijesta", in the new board of this state company.
Both ships of Crnogorsk plovidba, "Kotor" and "21. maj" since its construction in China in 2012. have been on time charter (time lease) of the company "Sea Pioneer" from London.
The new management, as "Vijesta" confirmed, is also negotiating to increase the freight rate for the ship "Kotor", and it is certain that "Sea Pioneer" will no longer be the charterer of the two ships.
The new Board of Directors, which was appointed at the Shareholders' Meeting on August 30, includes Vojislav Ilic, Damir Stojanovic, Jovo Lazarevic, Željko Dedijer i Nemanja Petrovic. They are the representatives of the new parliamentary majority.
For months, thanks to the contracts signed by the former board of directors led by DPS with "Sea Pioneer" at the end of last year under very unfavorable conditions for Montenegrin shipping, both ships sailed at a daily freight rate of only 7.600 dollars per ship, which is many times lower than the freight rates which for those ships have been valid for a long time on the world market of ship space. Currently, the so-called "handy size bulkcarriers" (vessels for the transport of bulk cargo with a capacity of up to 35.000 tons) such as "Kotor" and "21. May" in the world are locked for multi-month time charter at a price of around 27.000 to 28.000 dollars per day, and for a longer period they are rented for 18.000 dollars per day, as is the case with the ship "Iron Lady", which was taken on a time lease for two years by the charterer Norden at the end of August.
The management of the company managed to significantly increase the daily rental price for one of the company's two ships after a long "struggle" with the current charterer. This did not happen as announced at the end of August by a former representative of the board of directors from the new parliamentary majority Vladimir Potpara (DF), "Sea Pioneer" signed the new arrangement with the Kotor shipping company only last weekend. Since then "21. May" for "Sea Pioneer" sails at double the daily rent than before.
According to the sources of "Vijesti", such an epilogue was influenced by a combination of several factors - the fact that freight rates on the world market have recorded a huge growth and that predictions say that they will remain relatively high for another long period, the pressure that was created in the Montenegrin public after the media published the details of the contract of the former DPS management of Crnogorska plovidba with Sea Pioneer, but also that the charterer had contracted the transportation of a large amount of cargo for which he needed "21. May", so he was forced to accept a higher freight rate so that Crnogorska plovidba would not leave him without a ship and put him in a position where he cannot fulfill his obligations to the owner of the cargo.
Sea Pioneer sole charterer
"The contract at the new price for "May 21" of 16.500, i.e. 18.000 dollars per day that we reached with "Sea Pioneer" expires on November 15. We are working intensively to negotiate a new, higher rent for the ship "Kotor", whose current rent at a price of only 7.600 dollars per day expires on October 15", said the source of "Vijesti", adding that negotiations are underway in parallel and that several other interested parties of new lessees who would take the ships of Montenegrin Plovodba on a time lease after the current contracts with "Sea Pioneer" are finished, for which it is almost certain that he will not be a business partner of this company in the coming period. The furthest, as we learn, went in the talks with a tenant from Norway who is ready to "Kotor" and "21. maj" leased for a long time, at a price of 18.000 dollars per day per ship.
Since putting these two ships into commercial use in 2012, Crnogorska plovidba has cooperated only with "Sea Pioneer" as a charterer. Behind that company stands a Turkish businessman Cemil Tumkaya who started this business arrangement when he was a captain at the head of the board of directors Miodrag Kršanac from Herceg Novi, who was then also the head of the Maritime Directorate in the former Ministry of Transport and Maritime Affairs, which was led by cadres of the unified SDP.
Meanwhile, Kršanac has retired from the state administration and has private business interests in the company "Sea Pioneer Montenegro" behind Tumkaya, which was founded in Herceg Novi to deal with maritime pilotage in Boka. Even after Kršanč's departure from the management of Crnogorska plovidba, "Sea Pioneer" continued, as an exclusive charterer, to take ships on time lease.
The nature of these contracts (lease of a ship with a crew) is that the shipowner (Crnogorska plovidba) leases the ship for a certain period to the charterer ("Sea Pioneer") who then commercially exploits the ship in its own name and on its own account. In practice, this means that "Sea Pioneer" makes money with the Crnogorski plovidba ship on the world market on the difference between the money it pays to the state company for its lease and the price at which "Sea Pioneer" then transports the cargo of other shippers with that ship. At the same time, "Sea Pioneer" as a charterer, does not care at all about the navigational and technical management of the chartered ship, because that is the obligation of the owner, but only about its commercial exploitation. In other words, companies that, like Crnogorska plovidba, do not have good business contacts and their own commercial service capable of finding cargo for ships themselves and concluding them in much more profitable and expensive voyage contracts use time charter contracts as a means of engaging their own fleet. charter).
"The contract at the new price for "May 21" of 16.500, i.e. 18.000 dollars per day, which we reached with "Sea Pioneer" expires on November 15. We are working intensively to negotiate a new, higher rent for the ship "Kotor" whose current rent is the price of only 7.600 dollars per day expires on October 15", said the source of "Vijesti"
Bonus video:
