Grindrod and Dudula set up new tanker venture

Terry Hutson
THE GRINDROD Group and black empowerment leader Dudula Shipping Company (DSC) have established a new petrochemical shipping and procurement services company, to be known as Southern Tankers. Both Grindrod and DSC own 50%.
The announcement follows 4,5 years of dialogue between the two companies.
"Our strategy is to own and manage tanker shipping to serve the Southern African oil industry and to supply related specialist products to the marine and petrochemical industry," Sithembiso Mthethwa of Southern Tankers and DSC told FTW.
The four directors of Southern Trading are Lance Manala (director of DSC), Alan Olivier (CEO of Unicorn), Robert Young (director of Unicorn) and Sithembiso Mthethwa (CEO of DSC).
According to Olivier, Southern Tankers has acquired Unilog, a specialised marine and related service division of Unicorn Shipping for the past 20 years, as well as its fuel trading operation, Unilog Fuel Trading, for R18 million.
The name Unilog will continue and staff of 40 will remain with the new company, said Olivier. Unilog maintains branches in Durban and Cape Town and supports the Unicorn fleet and other ships operating worldwide. The company also provides a procurement service to the marine industry, including the international sourcing, importing and customs clearance of equipment, spares, stores and provisions. Unilog operates accredited liferaft sales, servicing and repair stations plus an ultrasonic cleaning service, and is the exclusive South African sales and service agent for a variety of international marine equipment manufacturers.
The Unilog management team of Richard Snook and Alan Pillay in Durban and Keith de Beer in Cape Town remains the same.