Industry Pressure is Making People Think Harder and Focus More on Knowing Their Counterparty: Glander International Bunkering

Carsten Ladekjaer, CEO, Glander International Bunkering. Image Credit: GIB

As many in the Shipping and Bunker industries continue to struggle with the "new market norms", one positive from the increased pressure is that it is forcing people at all stages of the bunker supply chain to look more closely at who they are dealing with, Glander International Bunkering (GIB) CEO Carsten Ladekjaer has told Ship & Bunker.

This is not only proving to be of benefit for the stronger players, but particularly for traders, is also offsetting the trend of some bunker buyers to go as direct as possible.

"It is true that some owners prefer to buy direct from a physical supplier. The majority of those are companies who got burned by the OW collapse. Meanwhile, the positive thing about an industry under pressure is that it forces people to think harder. As a result, we have gained quite a few new clients," said Ladekjaer.

"This, owing to the fact that we do not assign ('pledge') our invoices to any third parties (banks). Nowadays, there is more and more focus on knowing your counterpart (KYC), so both our customers and our suppliers are increasingly aware that this makes Glander International Bunkering a very secure business partner to deal with.

"The best testimony to that is that it is usually the biggest of operators, who show the least of worry in dealing with us. When we ask them, if we can provide further information to support and prove that we are a safe counterpart, the response we usually get is: 'No, don't worry. We have already vetted you and we have no concerns'."

Ladekjaer also recently told Ship & Bunker he expected increased pressures from the introduction of a 0.50% sulfur cap on marine fuel in 2020 to also be of benefit for large bunker traders.