Shipping division

The Shipping Division has a long history within Duferco, being one of the key areas of expertise since the founding of steel trading operations.

Over the years the relevance of the Shipping team has grown significantly and the obvious evolution has been the upward integration by means of acquisition of own vessels.

The experience gained over the years has eventually led to the creation of the Nova Marine Group, a joint venture with the Romeo family.

Nova Marine Group has humble beginnings in Italy, with the passion of an experienced ship-master and captain, Giovanni Romeo, who wanted to create a stable transportation method for industries in need.

In 1981 the first bulk carrier was purchased, and started transporting goods in and around Italy. Growth happened quickly, with the steady purchase of more vessels and expansions to more ports.
The partnerships and mergers with other companies (historical partner Duferco, and more lately with Canada-listed Algoma Central Corporation) has pushed the company to pursue international waters with the same passion.

Nova marine Group mission is to provide customers with fast, flexible and reliable shipping solutions with the aim to deliver first-class service to leading international charterers, cooperating closely with every link in the shipping chain.
Nowadays, the shipping Group is present worldwide with its main Corporate functions in Switzerland.

Nova Marine Group operates in the shipping business, providing full ship management services worldwide, including vessels operations, sale and purchase, commercial and technical management. The Group was strengthened and structured with the Luxembourg-based holding in 2014.
The Group is engaged in the transportation of dry bulk cargoes worldwide, mainly through the ownership of dry bulk, cement carrier, self-discharge, general cargo and barges employed by a mix of spot voyages, charter party contracts, bareboat charter party and contracts of affreightment.

The fleet of 100 vessels between owned and time chartered spread over a range that includes: ” Mini bulk, “Handysize”, “Handymax”, “Supramax”, “Self Belt-Unloaders”, “Cement Carriers”.

The group consists of three business units: deep sea, short sea and cement carriers business, defined here under as:

• the deep-sea segment includes vessels above 15kdwt and it is executed under Nova Marine Carriers SA (hereinafter “NMC”).
• the short sea segment includes vessels under 15kdwt, and includes Multi-Purpose Vehicles (hereinafter “MPV’s”) and Belt-Unloaders. The short sea business is executed under NovaAlgoma Short-sea Carriers SA (hereinafter “NASC”), a joint venture between the Group and Algoma Central Corporation, Canada, set up during the 2017 financial year. The aim of NASC is to create a dedicated group/fleet of short sea vessels to serve the global shipping market.
• the cement carrier business is operated under NovaAlgoma Cement Carriers SA (hereinafter “NACC”), a joint venture between the Group and Algoma Central Corporation, Canada set up during the 2016 financial year. The aim of NACC is to create a dedicated group/fleet of cement carriers to serve the global cement industry in its overall logistical needs.

Other strategic joint ventures have been set-up by the Group and Navesco SA, Colombia, with the aim to expand its market to the Caribbean/South America areas.

The Group serves all kind of international clients and it operates in different markets: Mediterranean (including Black Sea, Azov Sea and North African countries), Atlantic (including West African countries, Caribbean Sea and East-Coast South America countries), Continent and Baltic (including ice trading areas), South East Asia and Middle East (Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, China, Japan, South Korea, Bangladesh, India, Sri-Lanka, Red Sea, Persian Gulf, East and South Africa).