8 years strong: How Baumarine & S’hail continue to maximize earnings through collaboration and innovation
Image: Baumarine team visit S’Hail Shipping and Maritime Services in Doha, Qatar
As we close our eighth year of pool partnership with S’hail Shipping and Maritime Services, we recently held our annual gathering at their headquarters in Doha. This valuable meeting provided the honor of connecting with their new Chairman, Mr. Jaber Lai Ali R. A. Al-Mohannadi, as well as CEO Mr. Rajiv Pal and their teams. Beyond strengthening our collaboration, the discussions reinforced the continued success of our partnership—demonstrating how Baumarine’s fixed hire conversions have helped S’hail optimize earnings and capitalize on market peaks with greater efficiency.
For 2024, conversions spot to fixed hire at market peaks delivered a total upside of +$915,049, matching the strong performance achieved in 2023. Best of all, the process is now easier, faster, smoother than ever before. S’hail has been an active user of this fixed hire service since its inception and Ignacio Pizarro, Global Head of Partner Relations for Baumarine sat down with CEO Mr. Rajiv Pal to discuss their success.
Mr. Pal emphasized: “After giving feedback on how fixed earnings could better catch the intra-day volatility momentum, all I can say is that they truly heard us. Now we have direct access and communications with their financial trading teams for timely, live fixed rate indications, which are instantly confirmed and executed within minutes.”
Mr. Pal goes on to explain: “This is especially interesting for a simple reason, S’hail fleet is trading the spot market in the pool, which financially speaking becomes secondary somehow. We eliminate the pool spot performance risk whether above or below the Baltic index, as we secure our fixed earnings at market peaks. This is equivalent to having evergreen index-linked deals at say +5%-15% premium above index when done right, or to executing back-to-back short periods with a big difference, we control and decide the desired hire levels (this is, market highs).”
Pizarro adds: “The real game-changer is that pool members have full control over the timing of conversions. They don’t have to wait for the next opening dates or port positions seen in a period time charter, where owners are left at the mercy of prevailing market conditions. Executions to fixed hire in Baumarine are unconditional, not dependent on a vessel’s 'good or bad' opening position for the next spot fixture—ensuring flexibility and maximizing earnings potential, even in the middle of a spot voyage.”
Mr. Pal concludes: “And all this while Baumarine is the home for our ships, conservatively trading in the pool with fully KYC’ed counterparties, with high levels of research insights shared with us and the rest of members at high international operational standards. Thanks to this way of collaborating to optimize the earning potential of our vessels, my teams and I can focus on our fleet expansion plans and other strategic decisions going forward.”
Carl-Martin Graf, Head of Baumarine, concludes on the visit: “Meeting both with existing and prospective owners helps us to challenge both industry standards and our business models. Going forward we will continue to provide best in class earnings management by leveraging our spot exposure, conversion access, research-driven trading signals and a willingness to explore ‘what good looks like’ for each owner.”
Baumarine greatly values its long-standing partnership with S’hail. While daily calls and discussions are important, nothing replaces in-person meetings for deeper collaboration and strategic planning.
Stronger Together!
About S’hail Shipping and Maritime Services
Learn more: Our Journey
About Baumarine by MaruKlav
Baumarine AS is a Dry Cargo Panamax and Kamsarmax pool serving owners globally through in-depth market and industry knowledge run by Klaveness. Through close collaboration, scale and use of data and analytics we provide a viable alternative to ship owners in a market where charterers are often taking the lead in terms of timing the next fixture. Volatility in the market looks certain to stay and we give owners the control back.