ARKON Shipping specialises in European coastal and container feeder services and global heavy lift and project shipping. The shareholding should be viewed as part of growth strategies.
In addition to commercially managing the fleet entrusted to its care, ARKON offers chartering, pool and IT solutions, project development work, financial and dockyard contacts in Europe and the Far East and it acts as a classic purchase and sales shipping broker.
“European short-sea shipping is part of the range of services provided by Rhenus. We’ve been able to gain a partner in the shape of ARKON to significantly expand this service and make it more flexible. ARKON’s experience in forming shipping pools has made the company one of the market leaders in European short-sea shipping. We want to jointly consolidate this position,” said Thomas Maassen, a member of the Rhenus Port Logistics management team, giving the reasons for the shareholding.
“During times of general consolidation in the shipping world, Industry 4.0, increasing digitalisation and the endemic paradigm shift, where shipping is once again becoming part of an industrial supply chain, the formation of industrial partnerships makes sense and is a beneficial step,” says Torsten Westphal, Managing Partner of ARKON Shipping.
The aim of the increase in capital and the establishment of a joint investment company, Rhenus-ARKON-Shipinvest GmbH & Co. KG, is to enable further expansion of the fleet of vessels being commercially managed by ARKON in future.
The shipping broker Torsten Westphal and the ship owners Herm and Stefan Jüngerhans and Gerd Wessels each have a 20 percent shareholding in ARKON Shipping in addition to Rhenus.