Eastwind Maritime Inc. is an international shipping company headquartered in New York with offices in Tokyo, London, Singapore, Sweden, China, Russia, Brazil, Greece, Belgium and Korea which are involved in chartering and operations of the company fleet.

Eastwind Investment Company operates in New York as the managing and/or general agent of all of the Eastwind Group companies.

Eastwind’s fleet consists of about 119 owned and chartered vessels operating in four sectors: 

  • Refrigerated (“Reefers”) and Freezer Vessels

  • Dry Bulkers

  • Product Tankers

  • Container Ships

         Founded in 1987 by American and Japanese shipping professionals, Eastwind has grown substantially in our first 20 years of existence.  From our start in the dry bulk and reefer shipping sectors, Eastwind has expanded the scope and depth of our transportation services, including acquisitions ranging from single ship purchases to major fleets.  For example, Eastwind and our Kura affiliate acquired the Republic of Georgia’s tanker fleet in 2005, and Eastwind, in partnership with NYKCool, acquired Chiquita’s “Great White Fleet” in 2007.

 

Eastwind is also an innovative pioneer in the shipping industry that responds rapidly to constantly changing markets:

 

  • We are leaders in the mid-ocean transfer of squid and fish to ocean carriers allowing fishing vessels to spend more time on the fishing grounds while allowing more efficient freezers and reefers to transport cargo on long voyages to markets world wide.

  • Eastwind is in the midst of converting about a dozen of our 17,000 DWT (deadweight ton) product tankers to double hull, which will allow these ships to trade past their single hull phase out dates.  Our first converted 17,000 DWT product tanker has been trading as a double hulled ship since the middle of 2006 and has received major oil company vetting.

  • We began conversion of four single hulled 29,900 DWT product tankers to 28,000 DWT dry bulk carriers in November 2007 in the COSCO Shanghai shipyard.  We expect the last of these conversions to be completed in the third quarter of 2008.

  • Container lines have steadily increased their carriage of refrigerated cargoes.  To meet this continuing challenge in one of our core businesses, Eastwind entered the container ship sector with our first purchase of two ships in late 2005/early 2006.  Since then, Eastwind and our affiliates have acquired a fleet totaling 14 feeder container ships ranging in size up to 2,100 TEU.

  • Eastwind noted that owners were not ordering vessels to replace those expected to be scrapped in the rapidly aging handy size bulk carrier sector.  After a concentrated search, Eastwind selected Shanhaiguan, part of the China Shipping and Offshore Industry Co. group, as our newbuilding shipyard for the expansion of our handy sized dry bulk fleet.  In 2007, Eastwind entered into newbuilding contracts for eight Lakers and four 35,000 DWT bulk carriers scheduled for delivery from 2009 through 2011.

 

Eastwind’s worldwide staff looks forward to continuing the relationships built over the past twenty years and to forging new ones for the future.

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