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Hong Kong-based Wallem Group and Inchcape Shipping Services (Japan) have set up a 50-50 joint venture to provide liner agency services in Japan for shipowners worldwide.

  The Hong Kong-registered joint venture company, Wallem Inchcape Shipping Limited (WISL), will assume all the Japanese liner agency business previously handled by ISS, which has a presence in 43 countries.

  Harry Gilbert, managing director of the Wallem Group, said: 'This joint venture will give us an opportunity to get into the Japanese market.'   The joint venture would give Wallem the ability to complete its agency chain in this part of the world.

   The group has operations in Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, China and now Japan. It has no plans to expand to other countries at the moment.

  Mr Gilbert said the joint venture would operate as an independent unit with its own accounts department and support systems. It would also provide market information feedback.

  'As some of our clients wanted to go to Japan, the joint venture was a reasonable compromise,' Mr Gilbert said.

  WISL executive director Tom Wilken said: 'We are delighted that all our principals have fully supported the formation of the joint venture, and also that our staff, who have many years' experience in liner agency in ISS, have all given their commitment to the future of the new company.'   WISL will represent carriers such as Ahrenkiel Liner Service of Germany, Australian National Line, Compania Sud Americana de Vapores of Chile, Ethiopian Shipping Lines, Thailand's Unithai Shipping Lines and Westwood Shipping Lines and Weyerhaeuser Lines, both from the United States.

  WISL will operate the same offices, telephones and other contact numbers as ISS before.

    The services of several related companies will not be affected by the joint venture. They are: ISS Ship Services, which provides port agency services to owners and charterers of tankers and drybulk carriers; Inchcape Machinery Services (Japan), which sources marine parts and machinery in Japan for shipowners; and Inchcape P&I Services.

  The Wallem Group, founded in 1898, operates a ship management company in Hong Kong representing several big names in the industry. It manages more than 100 ships, including the world's largest tanker fleet.

  The venture provides ISS with a regional rather than a worldwide approach, maintaining ISS's presence in Japan, the Middle East and North America but withdrawing from the business in Europe and (apart from Japan) in Asia.



Venture with Inchcape Shipping completes company's chain in the region