Buerger not content to let Uniline sit tight

LIMA: Many shipowners in Peru have been content to sit tight and survive, but Naviera Universal (Uniline) has raised eyebrows through its series of acquisitions. Uniline president Herbert Buerger just laughs when questioned if he's building a fleet of around 20 ships, but it's not such a wild proposition. Just five years ago, Uniline only had a couple of multipurpose tweendeckers; today the company owns and operates 11 ships with a payroll of nearly 500 people.

10 October 1996 22:00 GMT Updated 10 October 1996 22:00 GMT

Uniline, which mainly operates in liner services, parcel services and

tramping, is proving to be one of the most dynamic of the new breed of

private Peruvian companies, as the company's acquisitions show.

The company's latest acquisition was the purchase in July of a heavy

lift vessel at auction in Rotterdam. The 17,000-dwt Unicondor (built

1979), with a 300-ton heavy-lift capacity, was acquired cheaply with

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the aim of starting a small break-bulk service from the European

continent to Peru.

Fleet