Baltic Reefer, Seatrade form joint venture

   Baltic Reefer Group Ltd. and the Seatrade group of companies, operators of breakbulk refrigerated vessels, said they had established a new joint venture that will operate under the name of Reefer Alliance.
   “This will maintain the parties’ ability to provide competitive and commercially attractive specialized reefer services in response to the competition of the container lines,” said Seatrade in a press release.
   Reefer Alliance began operating on Jan. 1 and will bring together the marketing and sales of both Baltic Shipping and Seatrade Reefer Chartering NV in specific trade lanes by combining both fleets of the two specialised reefer companies.
   The purpose of Reefer Alliance is to achieve improved flexibility, improved service levels and increased efficiency by jointly operating a combined fleet of about 96 specialized reefer ships in the range of 350,000 to 626,000 cubic feet in three core trades:

• South Africa to St. Petersburg.
• Chile to St. Petersburg.
• Morocco to St. Petersburg.

   The companies said they will continue to operate their fleets in their present structure, and achieve efficiency through optimized scheduling. Marketing will be done by Baltic Shipping in St. Petersburg, which will be represented by Anlin Shipping (PTY) Ltd. of Cape Town in South Africa, Beagle Navigation S.A. trading as Seatrade Chile of Santiago, and Maritime Ship Services of Casablanca. – Chris Dupin