Bibby Line News

Liverpool's last family-owned shipping line is returning to a new era of deep-sea cargo carrying.

Bibby Line, which has a £1bn annual turnover, disposed of most of its former deep sea fleet three years ago, in a highly lucrative deal. The company, which is also the world’s oldest privately-owned shipping line, has now placed an order for a dry bulk vessel capable carrying loads up to 57,000 deadweight tonnes. It’s the first of what Bibby Line hopes to be a new worldwide fleet of bulk cargo ships ordered in the next 12 months.

The company sold its previous fleet of ships – chemical and liquid-petroleum gas (LPG) carriers – between 2005 and 2007. The new supramax-size ship is the sister ship of Bibby Line’s MV Shropshire, completed as the world went into recession. However, Bibby does not operate Shropshire, which is under charter in the Far East. Construction of the new carrier, for an undisclosed sum, will be at Jinling shipyard, at Nanjing, China, and is scheduled for delivery in March, 2012. Classified as a geared carrier, the as-yet unnamed vessel will be fitted with cranes and grabs. This means she can load and unload cargoes such as steel, grain and coal, at ports without shore-based equipment. The ship will be built to a standard Dolphin 57 design, one which is well-tried and tested within the industry.

Sir Michael Bibby, Bibby Line Group managing director, who is based at its Liverpool headquarters, in Duke Street, said: “We’re investing in dry bulk carrying as we see that as the best market. “We’re planning further acquisitions of new-build or second-hand ships, as we’re looking to significantly expand our capacity. “Hopefully these will be ordered in the next 12 months. “The idea is to buy while the market is low and start building up our fleet again.

“The number of ships we can order is unlimited, but it all depends on the business for them. “We’ve traded Shropshire on a three-year charter to a large Chinese company.”

Apart from Shropshire, Bibby’s current fleet is of specialist vessels such as diving support ships Bibby Sapphire and Bibby Aquamarine, eight Coastels (floating accommodation vessels) and six roll-on roll-off freight ferries

Jebb Kitchen, Bibby Line managing director, said: “We made a lot of money selling our fleets of chemical and LPG tankers between 2005 and 2007. “We are now ready to use our cash reserves to expand our fleet further. “This new order marks the latest stage of our reinvestment programme. “We are optimistic about the opportunities for growth in the international dry bulk market.”

Sir Michael is the sixth generation of his family to run the company, which was founded in 1807. Originally solely dependent on shipping trade to Burma and Sri Lanka (Ceylon), the company suffered deeply during the recessions of the 1970s and 1980s. Sir Michael’s father, Sir Derek Bibby, turned around its fortunes by diversifying into other businesses, such as finance, funeral directors, offshore oil and gas services, plus its hugely successful wholesale distribution.