The privately owned Danish shipping company Copenship A/S has filed for bankruptcy after running up unsustainable losses in the dry bulk market. Its Chief Executive, Michael Fenger, blamed the current poor condition of the dry bulk market for the firm’s fall, with the Baltic Exchange’s main sea freight index, which tracks rates for ships carrying dry bulk commodities, falling to its lowest level in nearly three decades in February.
Copenship had been operating over 50 chartered small-sized dry-bulk vessels carrying commodities such as grain, iron ore and timber, but these will now be returned to their owners. ‘We have done what we could to raise the funds to save the company, but we have reached a point where there is no more we can do’, said Fenger. Copenship was formed in 1978 to serve the East African trade, including the Indian Ocean islands, but also traded to West Africa and southern Africa. JS
