The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

TROPICAL Shipping’s $220 million sale to Seattle-based transportation provider, Saltchuk, will provide the company with much stronger capabilities within the US and a capital base for investment in new ships and services, the Arawak Port Development Company’s (APD) chief executive believes.

Michael Maura described the move as great for Tropical and the Bahamas. “Saltchuk is a successful ‘family owned’ multi-billion dollar shipping company operating from and within the US,” he said.

“They will provide Tropical with much stronger intermodal capabilities within the US, and with the capital base for investment in new ships and services in the years ahead.”

Mr Maura added: “I believe that the acquisition is a great move for Tropical and a good move for the Bahamas. The owners of Saltchuk recently visited Nassau and toured the Nassau Container Port, and no doubt their visit influenced their decision to buy Tropical.”

Tropical Shipping, which was one of two major players in the Bahamian commercial shipping market- the other being Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC)- is being sold for $220 million to Saltchuk, said to be one of the US’s leading freight transportation and distribution companies.

Mr Maura, a former Tropical Shipping executive himself, said the company was started by the Birdsall family over 50 years ago, and had been successfully serving the Bahamas longer than any other shipping firm with the exception of the Betty K.

The Birdsall family sold the company in the 1980s to NICOR, a natural gas company based in Naperville, Illinois. Atlanta Gas & Light (AGL), one of the largest US-based gas utilities, purchased NICOR a few years ago and immediately began an effort to sell Tropical, as shipping is not part of its core business focus.

The sale marks yet another development in the Bahamas’ shipping industry, which has seen as many as four carriers, namely Crowley, Atlantic Caribbean Line (ACL), Seaboard Marine and G&G, close their Nassau routes in recent years.

Tropical Shipping is a transporter of dry and refrigerated containerised cargo, and provides scheduled logistics services to and from the US and Canada, to 25 ports in the Bahamas and Caribbean, including scheduled inter-island services between Caribbean ports. Tropical’s sale is expected to conclude in 90 days.

Saltchuk is one of the US’s leading freight transportation and distribution companies. Founded in 1982, Saltchuk is based in Seattle and is a second-generation family business. Tropical will be Saltchuk’s fifth transportation business unit of international shipping, joining its domestic shipping, tug and barge, air cargo and trucking businesses.