MARINE BULK Carriers, the Cape Town-based BEE shipping company, has expanded its shipping business by adding two more vessels to be deployed on a global basis. MBC, which already has responsibility for managing Sanko’s 150 000-ton Sanko Spark, has further expanded its relationship with Sanko Steamship Company of Japan by taking on the commercial management of the 162 000-ton capesize vessel, Sanko Oasis. Jan Rabie, an MBC director, says the vessels each represent earnings potential of more than US$150 000 a day, placing a huge responsibility on the South African company but also indicating the confidence Sanko has in its ability to manage these vessels. MBC has also chartered the 74 780-ton Panamax size vessel, Elinakos, currently loading coal in Dalrymple Bay, Australia for shipment to Brazil, for a two-year period. “Sanko has also asked us to utilise these vessels to create more job opportunities for South Africans. By 2008 we will have 16 officer cadets and five qualified officers working in the Sanko fleet, all products of the training development and placement programmes of our sister company, Marine Crew Services.”
