Interview with
Mr. James Harley
Director & Head of Marketing
When was Drewry originally established? Who “owns” Drewry?
The Drewry name can be traced back to the early 1970s, when the business began providing research services primarily to the bulk shipping sectors. While the broad range of maritime research and consulting services offered by the company today are very different to then, the business has always taken great care to preserve its core values of independence and objectivity, with no asset ‘bias’ or direct involvement in broking. Drewry has always been privately owned. The current principal shareholder and Executive Chairman of Drewry Group is Arjun Batra, who has been instrumental in the growth of the company, including setting-up offices in India, Shanghai and Singapore.
Can you tell our readers about Drewry? As far as I understand it is about market intelligence and forecast in shipping?
Drewry’s research services fall broadly into two areas. One is Maritime Research – providing detailed macro (supply/demand, fleet, freight/charter rates, commodity etc) analysis and forecasts across all shipping sectors. The other is a dedicated Financial Research area providing specialist, independent equity research services to the global investment community.
We also have two advisory business divisions. Drewry Maritime Advisors offer a wealth of experience and sector expertise in ports, bulk and liner shipping, MPV, RoRo and specialist technical and financial advisory areas. Drewry Supply Chain Advisors offer container freight cost benchmarking, procurement and logistics management advisory services to global shippers and freight forwarders.
There is “no free lunch” in this world as the saying goes. Can interested parties subscribe to Drewry reports, and can you elaborate a bit about the different shipping sectors that you offer intel about?
We offer access to a comprehensive catalogue of maritime research services, which are predominantly available on conventional annual subscription terms. Certain specialist research titles, however, such as our popular Ship Operating Costs and Manning reports are published annually.
We cover all the main shipping sectors from containers to dry bulk, chemicals and product, to crude and gas, MPV and reefer markets, providing detailed analysis and commentary on past, present and future sector performance, but we also leverage this in-depth understanding and experience in the advisory projects we deliver.
Another old saying goes: “It is difficult to predict the future.” So too in shipping I guess. How do you go about forecasting in general and what makes you stand out, would you say?
Clearly, forecasting is not without its challenges. While there is no substitute for experience and understanding, over the years, we have constantly sought to refine, adapt and improve the approach we take to ensure the most robust and rigorous view of market development as is possible. A good example is how we now leverage technology and have incorporated our proprietary AIS analytics capability into our scenario-based modelling and ‘nowcasting’.
Many of our readers are MPP shipowners and freight forwarders, particularly in the project and heavylift cargo sector. Would you have products that could interest them?
The Drewry Maritime Research services that will be of particular interest to MPP shipowners and freight forwarders will be our Multipurpose Shipping Forecaster (https://www.drewry.co.uk/mpv) providing detailed quarterly market analysis and updated 5-year forecasts with analysis covering the key areas of market outlook, a detailed assessment of the key drivers of the MPV trade and comprehensive analysis of the fleet, charter and asset market (newbuilds, demolitions, vessel operating costs and voyage cost benchmarks etc). Alongside this subscription service is our more comprehensive Ship Operating Cost annual report (https://www.drewry.co.uk/soc), providing operating cost assessments across 47 representative ship types and sizes covering all the main shipping sectors, cost assessments to sub cost head level and operating costs assessments by vessel age.
How would it be best to get in touch with you and or your colleagues, particularly in the shipowner (MPP/Container) & freight forwarding sector?
To find out more about our full range of maritime research or consulting services email us at enquiries@drewry.co.uk or complete the enquiry form at https://www.drewry.co.uk/contact-us
