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| Toshimitsu Urabe, deputy chief representative for China and president of Mitsubishi Corp. Hong Kong |
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Teh-Hu Cargocean Management Co., Ltd. (TCM) began operations in 1974 with a fleet of 10 small bulk carriers and tweendeckers ranging from 10,000 to 20,000 deadweight tons.
Between 1974 and 2004, the company was steered by Chung Kia Liu as chairman and Kenneth Keung Wah Lo as managing director. Lo, who chaired the Hong Kong Shipowners
Association from 1986 to 1987, has doubled as chairman since 2004 following the death of Liu.
By 1985, TCM’s fleet had reached 19 vessels with an aggregate of 900,000 deadweight tons,
consistently undertaking programs to renew its fleet with Handysize, Panamax and Capesize newbuildings.
Its vessels came from IHI of Japan, Austin & Pickersgill of England, Hyundai, Samsung and Samho of South Korea, China Shipbuilding Corp. of Taiwan and Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding of China.
But from 1988, the group decided to focus on Capesize carriers only.
Aside from the strong financial backing from well-known financial institutions such as Calyon and
BNP Paribas of France, TCM enjoys a very close relationship with reputable charterers, including the “Big Three” of Japan, P&O of the U.K., Navios of the U.S., Egon Oldendorff of Germany, Cobelfret and Bocimar of Belgium.
In 2000, TCM put its fleet under the technical and crewing management of a Hong Kong ship management company to allow top management to focus on the business side of shipping and diversify investments in other areas.
“At the moment, our shipping investment is still our core business but we are planning for the next
20 years. We hope our investments in other areas as mentioned above will eventually be just as successful.
To catch the right market at the right time requires experience, the knowledge and of course a little bit of luck,” says Lo. |