Hong Kong-based Univan Ship Management has set up a 50-50 joint venture company, Uniram Ship Management, with Japanese trading house Rams Corp to provide ship-management services.
Uniram, which started operating officially yesterday , will provide management and other technical services to owners and operators of ocean-going vessels.
'We will take care of crewing, arranging insurance, claims handling and investigation, accounting, surveys and advice and supervision of dry-docking and newbuildings,' Uniram's fleet operations department manager Sanjay Anand said.
Uniram directors include Ryoji Ishikawa, chairman of Mitsui Lease Shipping Co, and Captain C.A.J. Vanderperre, managing director of Univan Ship Management.
Mr Vanderperre, who is one of the founders of the third-party ship management concept, said he believed a medium-sized ship management company should have control over only 60 vessels to provide the best service.
Also ship-management companies should not own vessels, he said. He said that if a ship-management company had to choose between sending its best captain to a vessel of the company and a vessel owned by another company, for example, a conflict of interest would arise.
'Our policy is therefore not to own vessels,' Mr Vanderperre said.