German shipping veteran Dietrich Schulz has merged his ship management and broking divisions into a single operation focused on green energy shipping projects.
Two disbanded companies, Liberty One Shipmanagement and shipbroker Handelshaus Bremen, have been combined into a company called Liberty Pier Maritime Projects.
Headquartered in Bremen, with offices in Leer and Shanghai, it will focus on asset management, finance and projects.
Managing director Schulz argued that the merger of Liberty One and Handelshaus will enable the combined outfit to concentrate on bigger industrial projects.
Liberty Pier has a special interest in alternative propulsion systems and will also looking at newbuild projects.
It is co-managed by shipbroker Ole Bendlin, formerly of Maersk Broker and a director of Handelshaus.
A third member of the management board is Susanne Meyer, who worked with Liberty One and formerly worked with DS Schiffahrt, the ship management arm of KG (limited partnership) financier Dr Peters.
A decade on
Liberty Pier is one of three companies that have their roots in the companies that the 57-year old Schulz founded 10 years ago.
He established Liberty One in 2011, having previously worked for Deutsche Afrika Linien, Columbia Shipmanagement and Hartmann Reederei.
In 2015, he set up the ship management arm Liberty Blue as a third-party manager of vessels formerly operated by Leer-based Reederei Buss.
Liberty Blue is unaffected by the merger and will continue to manage a fleet of around 15 containerships, multipurpose (MPP) vessels and bulkers.
More recently, the group has made a push into the Asian market. It established Liberty One Asia in December 2019, a Shanghai-based outfit with two MPPs under its management.
Alternative propulsion
Liberty Pier will look at green energy projects with a focus on alternative propulsion systems.
“We are teaming up with industrial partners looking seriously into green propulsion for the European market trades covering Baltic, Mediterranean and Northwest continent,” Schulz said.
The shipbroking division will focus on chartering, sale and purchase, and potential newbuilding projects.
Schulz is also backing a start-up, Vidisea, a digital platform connecting stakeholders in the European coastal shipping sector.
“We have a strong belief in digitalisation and finding alternative ways to rethink shipping overall,” he said.
Schulz said his group companies have needed to adapt their operations over the past decade.
“It’s the only way to survive. To have new ideas, fresh ideas, and to fully understand what the next generation needs.”
