ALAN PEAT AN AGREEMENT has just been signed between Global Port Services (GPS) and Barwil Agencies (BWA) of Oslo in Norway, forming a new ships agency in SA called Barwil Ship Services (BSS), according to agency MD Captain Marinus van der Zande. “BSS will operate as a merged joint-venture between Barwil SA and GPS,” he told FTW, “with Barwil as the majority shareholder. “Both GPS and Barwil SA (BSA) have merged all their assets, staff and portfolios into the new company, and all the directors of the two companies have resigned or will resign.” As part of the plan, BSA will be closed down at the end of 2005. In the merged entity, Barwil is to act as a liner, husbandry and dry/liquid bulk operator for international principals, whereas the GPS portfolio is more focused on general cargoes, semi-liner, fertilisers and bulk commodities in the local market. “With both these businesses combined, each will feed the other with critical volumes,” said Van der Zande. “It is the objective of BSS to grow within three to five years into the largest independent shipping agency and related services provider in SA.” The head office of Barwil Ship Services is located in Durban Bay House in Durban, and it is also operating with fully-staffed and equipped offices in Richards Bay, Cape Town and Saldanha Bay. It currently has a sub-agency network in Walvis Bay, Port Elizabeth and East London and other SA ports. “But,” said Van der Zande, “BSS will most likely open its own fully-owned and operated offices in Port Elizabeth and East London within the first quarter of 2006. “Although the company was officially established on October 1 and this is regarded as the technical kick-off date – it actually commenced operations under its own name from November 1, in all the southern African ports and Indian Ocean Islands.”
