Intermarine reopens for business with three Americas services
Intermarine has reopened its doors for business launching three services covering the US Gulf, the Caribbean and South America. Intermarine disappeared as a brand following a merger with Zeaborn to form Zeamarine in 2018. The company has now been resurrected as Zeamarine had to spin off its Americas business as part of a restructuring process.
The shipping company has launched three services called the NCSA, WCSA and ESCA The first voyage commenced on February 7th, 2020, according to the company’s sailing schedule.
The North Coast South America (NCSA) service offers weekly sailings and is set up as flexible breakbulk service between the US Gulf, the north coast of South America and the Caribbean. The service calls in Colombia, Venezuela, Trinidad, Guyana, Mexico, the Caribbean and Central America. It also offers voyages to Suriname on a bi-weekly basis.
The West Coast South America (WCSA) voyages “are structured to provide frequent and reliable service for project, heavy-lift, containerized and grain/bulk cargoes”, Intermarine states. This service offers sailings between the US Gulf to and from Ecuador, Peru and northern Chile, with inducement port calls into Central America, Panama, Colombia and Central/South Chile.
Lastly, Intermarine is also launching an East Coast South America (ECSA) service which runs from the Amazon River to the tip of Argentina. “For 30 years, countless companies have relied upon our broad reach within this critical region”, the company comments.
According to a sailing schedule provided by Intermarine, the first sailing of the NCSA service departed on February 7th last week from Houston, which is the company’s main port of call in the US. For the WCSA and ECSA services, the first voyages are planned to depart on the 13th and 14th of February respectively.
Zeamarine
The resurrection of Intermarine is part of Zeamarine’s restructurings process initiated in December. Zeamarine was formed through a merger of Intermarine and Zeaborn in August 2018. Initially, the new shipping company was set up as a joint venture but Zeaborn later took full control of the firm. In December last year, however, it became apparent that Zeamarine’s rapid growth had caught up with the company and that measures were needed to reduce the company’s losses. Kurt Zech, the owner of Zeamarine, has now hired a restructuring expert who has taken over the management of the company from Jan Henrik Többe, one of the initial founders of Zeamarine.
It is yet unclear to what extent the company will be reorganized. Certain is that Zeamarine has thus far returned at least 17 vessels to their owners and it has spun off its Americas business. If Zeamarine will still be involved as an owner of Intermarine is also unclear. Intermarine’s new CEO, Richard Seeg, recently told media that Intermarine will be owned by Industrial Maritime Carriers (IMC) but that the ownership of the holding company was still being discussed.
10 vessels
According to the sailing schedule, Intermarine is starting out with five vessels, the ZEA Ace, ZEA Ama, ZEA Color, ZEA Confidence and the Industrial Future. That last vessel does not show up on records yet, which might mean that the vessel has just been renamed.
Customers can expect further expansion of Intermarine’s fleet and services in the future. Seeg told media that Intermarine will start off with 10 vessels, meaning an additional five vessels should join the fleet soon.
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