The leading group in the dry bulk sector with over one hundred ships is increasingly working with Vietnam, Indonesia, Bangladesh, India, New Zealand, and Australia and is strengthening its presence in Canada, Peru, and Chile. Waiting for Europe to start growing again
Rome – “The international scenario changes almost every morning. But in reality, we shipowners are quite used to throwing our heart over the obstacle. My grandmother used to say: every impediment can become a benefit”. Vincenzo Romeo, CEO of Nova Marine Carriers (the leading shipping group in dry bulk, headquartered in Lugano with a fleet of over one hundred ships, controlled by the Romeo and Gozzi families), had simplified the concept in this way during his speech at the Shipmag Observatory last November 26th, explaining that in an ever-evolving market, the shipowner’s profession is one of “great resilience and great adaptability”.
This is also evidenced by the fact that to seek new trades, the company has reached as far as New Zealand, which is the main supplier of logs for China and South Korea. “There are about 4 million cubic meters of logs that are regularly moved from New Zealand to China,” explains the shipowner, who will enter this trade and will also operate connections between the Chatham Islands archipelago and Auckland to transport sheep and cattle and, on the return journey, gasoline and supplies.
“But New Zealand also has rare earths, I discovered this by going there, I didn’t know it – he recounts – So there are new projects in mining and for a new bulk carrier port. A small part will most likely go in containers, but there are also all the residual materials that are still used in heavy industry and we are very interested in that”.
The markets in this international scenario, ranging from the wars in Ukraine and Israel, to Suez first being closed to avoid the Houthi rebels who have now suspended attacks, to Trump’s tariffs, have partly shifted, also for dry bulk, the sector in which Nova Marine Carriers operates. “The most disruptive event was the war in Ukraine – illustrates Romeo – especially for grains, steel, and raw materials, for the production of tiles and other elements related to Italian ceramic production, which is an excellence”.
“The second event – he continues – was the Suez Canal. In reality, however, the market changes but adapts, and that is the beauty of being a shipowner, because the routes have lengthened and we have discovered new markets”.
Which ones?
“For example, now all the material for ceramics comes from India and Brazil is opening up. Regarding steel, Europe has decided to defend itself and it is mainly imported from Far East countries, China first and foremost but there are also Vietnam and Indonesia. Even our ships went to load steel in Australia. The routes change but the goods always find a way”.
Are the ETS really a problem?
“Yes. Not only have the supply chains lengthened, but we have further burdened a logistics cost that had already naturally increased with Ukraine and the near closure of the Suez passage, increasing costs for shipowners who physically cannot sustain these new extra taxes. There has been an increase in freight rates due to the increase in costs, which at the end of the chain falls on the end user”.
Is there a risk that it could influence routes, penalizing Europe?
“I am accustomed to new risks, to always improving, but also to the fact that we all play by the same rules.
I am not only concerned about the European market, because we are contributing to weighing down industrial production in Europe – which in my opinion is an extremely serious damage – But we are creating two types of markets. Who assures me, for example, that my Chinese competitors or anyone who does not have a headquarters in Europe, follows the same rules? Who controls? If we all follow the same rules, when the market rebalances as routes change, it does so with the new rules, but we must all play by the same norms. Because if one team enters the field and to win must score three goals and the other to win only needs to score one, it seems to me something that distorts the market.”
How is the bulk freight market going?
“The bulk market had a couple of major booms in 2004, 2008 and in 2022 where more or less all markets, from bulk to container to liquid, had an explosion, but we bulk carrier owners have always been used to paying attention to the minimum cost. Today freight rates have increased, but because costs have increased and the increase in costs has taken some supply out of the market, because owners with small structures have had more difficulty managing it compared to companies with a more substantial critical mass.”
How was 2025 for Nova Marine Carrier?
“By family tradition we are very tight-lipped, but I can say that the company is doing well, we continue to grow. We always look to the future and we have understood that there are no geographical limits that our company cannot reach. There are “physical” limits in the sense of not taking on too many things and risking doing some of them poorly. So we move forward with a decisive step, but timing each new deal well. Our company will be 45 years old next year, so let’s say we are trying to speed through the stages without taking steps longer than our legs.”
New markets in sight and new ships?
“Now we have entered the livestock transport business from the other side of the world, in New Zealand, and as Nova Marine Carriers we go from the extreme Far East, through Canada to Peru and Chile, where we have two ships. We are among the largest cement carriers in the world. The market that grew the most in a time of political stability was Asia. Now, with the hope that we will find a bit of peace again, we expect Europe to grow again. But, but there is Vietnam, there is Indonesia, where they are building the new capital, and Bangladesh, and India.”
New types of ships?
“Yes. For us it was a great satisfaction to be able to provide accommodation and transport for cows and sheep at those latitudes, but that doesn’t mean we will limit ourselves to this.”
