JPMorgan Enters Shipping Fund Arena as the 500-Pound Gorilla

The formal announcement this week of the Andy Dacy led JPMorgan shipping fund provides a fine opportunity to survey the field.  But it must be said at the outset that JPM’s entrance is important for its size, ambition, confirmation of the concept and for the industry whose mantra is Marine Money Week’s title: Liquidity, Liquidity, Liquidity.

It is also probably a challenging development for those funds not yet up and running, as JPMorgan is a powerful brand, US banking woes not withstanding.

It was interesting that Reuters in writing about the effort described JP Morgan Asset Management executive Joe Azelby, who made the formal announcement of the Fund, as a former US Football player rather than a Harvard grad.  No doubt, success in investing does come down to blocking and tackling well, in other words, paying strict attention to detail.

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Hellenic Norwegian Confab

For the fifteenth year, the Hellenic-American and Norwegian-American Chambers of Commerce presented their Annual Joint Shipping Conference posing the question of  “How Will Shipping Survive the Perfect Storm?” Whether the question was answered or not, attendees were able to garner lots of insights into what happened and what may happen in the future. Once again, the following will highlight what we found of particular interest.

Arlie Sterling of Marsoft provided insights into “what happened” and “what might happen.” The industry did well based upon an explosion in trade and demand and yard capacity limits. The chart below lays out the extraordinary growth.
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