Cyprus-based Schoeller Holdings is adopting a cautious approach to building up its fleet but is very much in the shipowning business for the long term.

The group’s more high-profile ship management unit — Columbia Group — is more active with expansion, but the parent has plans of its own.

“We’re very opportunity-led but perhaps conservatively minded, in the sense that we are very much looking at the employment of these vessels before we commit,” Schoeller Holdings and Columbia chief executive Mark O’Neil said.